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LEVITICUS. 


SABBATH  MORIIKG  READINGS 


MAR    9  1912 


OLD    TESTAMENT- 


v/ 
EEV.  JOnX  CUMMIXG,  D.D.,  F.R.S.E., 

BriNISTER   OF  THE  SCOTTISH  NATIONAL  CUURCU,  CROWN  COURT,  COVENT  GARDEN,  LONDON. 


BOOK    OF    LEVITICUS, 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED  BY  JOHN  P.  JEWETT  AND   COMPANY. 

CLEVELAND,   OHIO  : 

JEWETT,   PROCTOR  AND   WORTHINGTON. 

NEW    YOUK  :     SHELDON,    L.VMl'OUT    AND    BLAICEMAN. 
1855. 


CAMBRIDGE: 

ALLEN  AND  FARNUAM,  STEREOTYPERS  ANP  PRINTERS. 


PREFACE 


I 


It  is  difficult  to  please  everybody.  It  is,  in  fact, 
impossible.  But  it  is  always  a  duty  to  instruct. 
The  former  Volumes  have  met  with  great  accept- 
ance, although  in  one  or  two  instances  they  have 
been  freely  canvassed.  Some  think  these  Exposi- 
tions are  not  sufficiently  critical.  It  was  not  the 
design  of  the  Expositor  to  make  them  so ;  they  are 
simply  running  and  popular  comments  intended  for 
instructive  and  ordinary  reading. 

The  Reader  will  find  —  what  the  Author  has  also 
found  —  incidental  mistakes.  He  will  always  be 
obliged  to  his  Readers,  when  they  discover  them, 
to  point  them  out.  He  feels  even  obliged  to  "  B.," 
a  ^\Titer  in  the  Baptist  Magazine.,  for  detecting  and 
exposing  two  or  three  slight  mistakes ;  and  for  the 
sake  of  the  service  done  him,  he  will  patiently  put 
up  with  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  done.  The  Author 
wants  to  grow  wiser  himself,  and  to  make  his 
Readers  wiser  also.     He  is  deeply  grateful  for  far 

(iii) 


IV  PREFACE. 

wider  acceptance  and  appreciation  than  he  ever  sup- 
posed possible. 

As  many  very  deeply  interesting  rites  and  cere- 
monies occur  in  this  Book,  —  replete  with  evan- 
gelical truth,  for  which  room  could  not  be  found  in 
the  "  Readings,"  there  is  added  a  companion  Vol- 
ume, entitled  "  The  Great  Sacrifice ;  or,  the  Gospel 
according  to  Leviticus,"  which  contains  special  illus- 
trations of  some  important  passages  in  this  portion 
of  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 
Prefatory  Remarks 1 

CHAPTER  I. 

Nature  of  Leviticus  —  Divine  Inspiration  of —  Full  of  the  Gospel  — 
Typical  Teaching  —  Jesus  in  Leviticus  —  Heathen  and  Jewish 
Sacrifices  —  Holocaust  —  Nature  of — Any  one  might  Kill  the 
Victim — A  Priest  only  could  Offer  it 6 

CHAPTER  H. 

Expiatory  and  Eucharistic  Offerings  —  Bible  has  Various  Adapta- 
tions—  Reasons  of  Minute  Prescriptions  —  Diflercnce  of  Rites  of 
Jewish  and  Christian  Economies  —  Atonement  the  Basis  of  Spir- 
itual Offerings  —  Cain  and  Abel  —  The  Poor  —  Leaven  —  First- 
fruits  14 


CHAPTER  HL 

Insulation  of  Jews  —  Designed  to  Inculcate  Ideas  of  Atonement  — 
Character  of  Offerer  —  "When  these  Offerings  were  made  —  Rites 
—  Blood  not  to  be  Eaten 23 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Sacrifices  —  In  Heathendom  as  among  the  Jews  —  Various  Sins  of 
Parties  —  Ignorance  hoAV  far  Exculpatory  —  Atonements  —  Num- 
ber Seven  —  Sacrifices  offered  without  the  Gate  —  Olficial  Rank 
aggi'avates  Sin  —  The  Vail 29 

(V) 


VI  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  V. 


Sin-ofTerlng  and  Trespass-oflering  —  Adjuration  —  Ignorance —  Offer- 
ings provided  for  the  Poor — Sacrifice  and  Confession  —  Burden- 
someness  of  Jewisli  Eites  —  Idea  of  Expiation  Inculcated      .        .    37 


CHAPTER  VI. 

Social  Sins  — Injuiy  to  a  Neighbor  is  Sin  against  God —  Commercial 
Duties  —  Forgiveness  —  Conseci*ation  of  Priests — The  Ceaseless 
Burning  —  Indolence  and  Activity  —  The  Daily  Sacrifice  — 
Heathen  Traditions  —  Priests'  Offerings  and  People's  Oflerings  — 
Their  Diflereuce 43 


CHAPTER  VII. 

All   Scripture  Instructive  —  Adam  the   First  Priest  —  Eucharistic 
Offerings — Votive  Offerinfrs  —  Jacob's  Vow 51 


CHAPTER  VIIL 

Sacred  Persons  —  Aaron's  Consecration  —  Leviticus  and  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  —  Moses  concerned  in  the  Consecration  of  Aaron  — 
Convocations  —  Washing  with  Water — Sandals  —  True  Rchgion 
has  Variable  Rites  and  Fixed  Moral  and  Spiritual  Truths      .        .    57 


CHAPTER  IX. 

Recapitulation  —  Aaron  enters  on  his  Office  —  His  Perfection  — 
Aaron's  first  Sacrifice  —  The  Appeai-ance  of  Jehovali  —  The 
Priestly  Benediction 64 


CHAPTER  X. 

A  Solemn  Judg-ment — Death  of  the  Sons  of  Aaron  —  Excess  of 
Wine  —  Strange  Fire  —  Its  Meaning  —  Reasons  of  Punishing 
Aaron's  Silence  — God  speaks  to  Aaron  — Hebrew  the  Primeval 
Tongue  —  High-Priest's  Duties 70 


CHAPTER  XL 

Animal  Food  —  Animal  Sacrifices  —  Distinction  of  Creatures  — 
Church  and  State  — Dietetic  Laws  — Their  Value  — Insulation  of 
the  Jews  —  Hospitality,  its  Power  and  ]\Ioral  Influence  .        .        .78 


CONTENTS.  Vll 

CHAPTER  XII. 
The  rurification  of  tho  Virgin  Mary 86 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

The  Leper  — The  Typical   Disease  — The  Priest  — His  Fianction— 
Meaning  of  Sentence  —  Absolution  —  Prayerbook  Sei-vice  for  Sick    87 


Disease  and  Sin  —  Every  Faculty  and  Affection  Infected  —  Insulation 
of  Sin— Priest's  Power  — Christ's  Duties 93 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

Ceremonies  on  Recovery  of  the  Leper  —  Priest's  Office  —  Absolution 
—  The  two  Birds  —  Leprosy  in  a  House  —  Prayer  and  Pains- 
taking —  The  Blessing  from  God  and  Means  by  Man    .        .        .    103 


CHAPTER  XVL 

The  Great  Day  of  Atonement  —  Its  Extent  —  The  Lonely  Intercessor 
—  The  only  Sacrifice  —  The  Perfect  Sprinkling  —  High-Priest 
offers  for  Himself — Two  Goats  —  Interpretations.        .        .        .111 


CHAPTER  XX. 

Parts  of  Scripture  Obscure  yet  Important —  God's  People  a  Holy 
People  —  Cleaning  of  the  Word  —  What  it  involves        .        .        .  125 


CHAPTER  XXI. 

Outward  Symmetry  and  Inward  Beauty  —  The  Jewish  Priest  — 
The  Christian  Jlinister  —  Example  —  Minister  must  be  sent  by 
Holy  Spirit  —  Ambassadors  —  Ministers  apt  to  teach  —  Prayerful 

—  What  ^linistcrs  should  not  be  —  Not  Lords  over  God's  Heritage 

—  Not  Covetous  —  Not  Contentious  —  Not  Men-pleasers  —  Not 
given  to  much  Wine 135 

CHAPTER  XXIL 
Rules  for  the  ilinistry  of  the  Priests 150 


Vm  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  XXIII. 


End  of  Jewish  Festivals  —  Effects  of,  on  the  Tribes  and  Nation  — 
Inspiration  —  Passive  Thankfulness  for  Harvests  —  Pentecost  — 
Gleanings  for  the  Poor  —  A  Margin  for  the  Needy — Feast  of 
Trumpets  —  Feast  of  Tabernacles 151 


CHAP  TEE  XXIV. 

Infant  Christianity —  Growth —  Oil  for  the  Lamps  —  Many  Congi-e- 
gations  one  Church  —  A  Christian  —  True  Church  —  Shewbread 
—  The  Blasphemer  —  Conscience  and  Civil  Interference  —  Capi- 
tal Punishment  —  Lex  Talionis 158 


CHAPTER  XXV. 

The  Jubilee  —  Provision  against  Monopoly  —  Balance  of  Society  — 
Instalments  —  The  Future  Rest 165 


CHAPTER  XXVL 

Idols  Forbidden  —  Obelisks  —  Priestly  Literature  —  Bible  for  all  — 
Christianity  is  Catholic — Temporal  Blessings  —  National  Great- 
ness—  Secret  of — The  Jew  —  The  Blessing  and  the  Cm-se  — 
Their  Restoration 172 


CHAPTER  XXVIL 

Minute  Laws  —  Devoted  Things  —  Exchanges  —  Devoted  Persons  — 
Jephthairs  Daughter  —  The  consideration  of  the  Poor  —  The 
Tithe-sheep 179 


CONTENTS.  IX 


THE    GREAT    SACKIFICE. 
CHAPTER  I. 

THE   COKTRAST      ....  193 

CHArTER  II. 

CONFESSION   TIIKOUGH   SACRIFICE 210 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE   SACRIFICE  OF  SWEET-SMELLING   SAVOR 230 

CHAPTER  IV. 

OUR  ADVOCATE 241 

CHAPTER  V. 

PKACE  WITH   GOD 256 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  GROUND  OF  JOY .  .  .      273 

CHAPTER  Vn. 

THE   CHRISTIAN  OFFERING 284 

CHAPTER  Vm. 

THE   GREAT  QUESTION 300 


X  *  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

CHRISTIAN  PRIESTS 308 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE   OBJECT   AND   END 317 

CHAPTER  XL 

LAST  APPEAL .     329 


SABBATH  MORNING  READINGS 


BOOK   OF   LEVITICUS 


PREFATORY    REMARKS. 

The  following  very  instructive  observations  are  given  by 
Bush,  the  American  commentator,  on  the  nature  and  import 
of  this  book  :  — 

"  Although  the  Book  of  Leviticus  contains  some  matters 
purely  historical,  yet  its  leading  scope  is  to  record  the  laws 
concerning  the  sacrifices,  ordinances,  and  institutions  of  that 
remarkable  economy  from  which  it  derives  its  name.  The 
established  worship  of  the  Hebrews  was  offering  —  not 
prayer,  said  or  chanted,  nor  instrumental  music,  nor  any 
like  form  of  devotion  —  but  the  presenting  to  the  Deity  cer- 
tain articles  of  food  and  drink.  This  system  of  worship  is 
not  to  be  understood  as  having  originated  at  the  time  to 
which  the  book  refers.  As  there  were  moral  laws  in  the 
world,  by  which  human  conduct  was  more  or  less  governed, 
prior  to  the  delivery  of  the  Decalogue  from  Mount  Sinai,  so 
it  is  evident,  from  the  history  of  Cain  and  Abel,  of  Noah,  of 
Abraham,  and  other  patriarchs,  that  sacrificial  offerings  are 
to  be  dated  back  to  the  earliest  periods  of  which  we  have 
1  (1) 


Z  SCKirTUKE    READINGS. 

any  account.  They  constituted  the  prevailing  form  in  which 
the  spirit  of  devotion  was  taught  to  express  itself  from  the 
very  infancy  of  the  race.  But  as  sacrifices  were  ordained 
to  enter  largely  into  the  dispensation  now  about  to  be  estab- 
lished, they  are  in  this  book  instituted,  as  it  were,  anew, 
placed  upon  their  true  foundation,  and  commanded  with  cir- 
cumstances which  gave  them  greater  importance,  and  served 
to  illustrate  their  typical  character  with  more  effect. 

"  The  sacrifices  prescribed  in  the  Levitical  worship  were 
of  two  kinds ;  the  bloody  and  the  unbloody  ;  or  the  animal  and 
the  vegetable  offerings ;  the  latter  consisting  o^ fruits  and  liba- 
tions. 

"  (I.)  The  Bloody  Sacrifices.  —  These  consisted,  (1.) 
of  Holocausts^  which  were  offered  to  the  Lord  entire,  and 
were  considered  as  ranking  highest  in  dignity  and  excellence, 
for  which  reason  Moses  commences  the  law  of  sacrifices  with 
them.  (2.)  Sin  and  Trespass-offerings,  distinguished  from 
the  holocausts  by  certain  parts  only  of  the  animal  being  burnt 
on  the  altar,  while  the  flesh  was  eaten  by  the  priests.  (3.) 
EiicJiaristical  Sacrijices,  or  Thanh-offerings.  In  these  the 
fat  only  was  consumed  on  the  altar,  a  small  portion  being 
allotted  by  law  to  the  priest,  and  all  the  rest  being  eaten  at 
a  solemn  and  joyful  feast  by  the  offerer  and  his  guests. 

"  (II.)  Unbloody  Sacrifices,  or  meat-offerings.  — 
These  consisted  of  flour,  bread,  cakes,  and  ears  of  corn  and 
grain  roasted,  of  which  a  full  account  is  given  in  ch.  ii.  The 
libations  were  of  wine,  and  although  the  mode  of  pouring 
them  out  is  nowhere  described,  yet  it  is  most  likely  that  the 
wine  was  poured  out  of  some  vessel  upon  the  top  of  the  al- 
tar. 

"  That  these  sacrifices  had  all  of  them  a  typical  intent ; 
that  they  were  *  shadows  of  good  things  to  come,'  pointing 
more  or  less  distinctly  to  the  '  body  wdiich  is  of  Christ,'  the 
whole  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  is  a  continued  proof  The 
imposition  of  hands  upon  the  head  of  the  victim,  the  shed- 


PREFATORY    REMARKS.  3 

ding  of  its  blood,  and  the  consumption  of  its  members  upon 
the  Jiltar,  were  prefigurative  acts  setting  forth,  by  a  kind  of 
dramatic  representation,  the  future  offering  of  the  '  Lamb  of 
God  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world.'  The  requisite 
qualities  of  these  sacrificial  victims  were  emblematical  of 
Christ's  immaculate  character,  and  the  law  of  their  oblation 
was  a  practical  hieroglyphic  of  the  great  gospel  truth  of  the 
atonement.  So  also  were  the  outward  washings  and  purifi- 
cations, enjoined  by  the  Mosaic  law,  designed  to  intimate 
the  necessity  of  inward  purity.  Indeed,  if  these  institutions 
be  severed  from  their  New  Testament  relations,  we  have  no 
key  to  unlock  the  hidden  meaning  of  the  Pentateuch,  and 
the  whole  ritual  contained  in  it  dwindles  down  to  a  burden- 
some round  of  unmeanino-  ceremonies.  But  when  resarded 
in  the  light  now  suggested,  the  whole  service,  hke  the  veil 
on  the  face  of  Moses,  conceals  a  spiritual  radiance  under  an 
outward  covering,  and  the  wisdom  of  the  various  appoint- 
ments appears  at  once  worthy  of  its  Divine  Author.  To 
what  extent  the  spiritual  import  of  these  rites  was  actually 
understood  by  the  Jews  themselves  it  may  not  be  easy  to 
determine ;  but  that  something,  over  and  above  the  simple 
act  of  slaying  and  offerj|ig  the  animal  victim,  was  required 
by  the  spirit  of  the  law,  is  evident  from  the  fact,  that  the 
obedience  of  the  chosen  people  is  frequently  represented  as 
faulty,  notwithstanding  their  scrupulous  observance  of  the 
outward  rite.  Thus  Isaiah  i.  11,  12  :  'To  what  purpose  is 
the  multitude  of  your  sacrifices  unto  me  ?  saith  the  Lord : 
I  am  full  of  the  burnt-offerings  of  rams,  and  the  fat  of  fed 
beasts  ;  and  I  delight  not  in  the  blood  of  bullocks,  or  of  lambs, 
or  of  he  goats.' 

"  But  while  the  Jews  probably  in  great  measure  fell  short 
of  apprehending  the  true  typical  genius  of  their  own  dispen- 
sation, and  consequently  rejected  its  Divine  Fulfiller  when 
he  came,  an  error  is  often  committed  on  the  other  hand,  in 
modern  times,  by  the  attempt  to  elicit  more  from  these  fig- 


4  SCKIPTURE    READINGS. 

uratlvc  inslitiitions  than  they  were  intended  to  convey.  It 
by  no  means  follows  that,  because  certain  jDortions  of  the 
Levitical  economy  have  a  typical  purport,  we  have  there- 
fore a  right  to  give  loose  to  imagination  and  multiply  types 
at  will,  as  if  the  Scriptures  meant  all  that  they  can  be 
made  to  mean.  This  was  the  fault  of  many  of  the  earlier 
interpreters,  who  so  abounded  in  mystical  senses  as  to  con- 
vert nearly  the  whole  system  into  a  mass  of  fancied  allego- 
ries and  typical  allusions,  which  Luther  very  properly  char- 
acterized as  the  ^ froth  of  Scripture.'  To  such  lengths  was 
this  style  of  interpretation  carried  by  Origen,  Hesychius,  and 
their  disciples  in  later  times,  that  one  can  scarcely  open  a 
volume  of  their  commentaries  without  reading  in  the  title- 
page  that  the  '  mystical  sense  is  duly  expounded  ; '  evidently 
implying  that  the  duty  of  the  commentator  was  by  no  means 
discharged  by  the  accurate  grammatical  exegesis  of  the  text ; 
but  that  he  was  bound  in  addition  to  penetrate  beyond  the 
surface  of  the  letter,  and  enlighten  his  readers  by  an  exhibi- 
tion of  the  manifold  occult  meanings  hidden  beneath  the  sur- 
face, and  constituting  those  abysmal  depths  of  import,  which 
the  plummet  of  lexicography  could  never  presume  to  sound. 
"  It  may  be  difficult,  indeed,  tOt,  lay  down  precise  rules 
which  shall  be  universally  applicable  in  the  way  of  interpre- 
tation, but  the  grand  canon  undoubtedly  is,  to  follow  strictly 
the  apostolical  explanations,  where  we  have  them;  and 
where  we  have  them  not,  to  proceed  with  extreme  caution, 
adhering  rigidly  to  the  analogy  of  faith,  and  standing  as  re- 
mote as  possible  from  any  thing  which  may  appear  fanciful, 
and  give  occasion  to  cavillers  to  discard  typical  expositions 
altogether.  Under  these  restrictions  we  may  safely  recog- 
nize a  typical  import  in  many  items  of  the  Levitical  law 
which  are  not  expressly  affirmed  by  the  New  Testament  writ- 
ers to  be  possessed  of  that  character ;  and,  in  fact,  in  no 
other  way  will  that  v/ondrous  polity  disclose  to  us  the  whole 
richness  of  its  evangelical  implications." 


PREFATORY   REMARKS.  0 

The  main  design  of  all  these  burnt-ofFerings  was  no  doubt 
expiatory,  while  eiicharistic  and  petitionary  references  were 
not  excluded. 

Noah  presented  biirnt-offerlngs  partly  as  eucharistic.  Job 
accompanied  his  prayer  for  his  sons  with  burnt-offerings. 
David  says,  "  I  will  go  unto  thine  house  with  burnt-offerings." 

The  burnt-offering  was  specially  typical  of  Christ.  So  it 
is  stated  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews :  "  When  he  cometh 
into  the  world  he  saith.  Sacrifice  and  offering  thou  wouldest 
not,  but  a  body  hast  thou  prepared  for  me ;  in  burnt-offerings 
and  sacrifices  for  sin  thou  hast  no  pleasure.  Then  said  I 
Lo !  I  come  (in  the  volume  of  the  book  it  is  written  of  me) 
to  do  thy  will,  O  God." 

The  offering  of  the  Son  of  God  superseded  the  cattle  on  a 
thousand  hills.  All  the  victims  and  offerings  related  in  this 
book  derive  their  significance  and  value  from  the  once-for- 
all  sacrifice  of  Christ  Jesus. 


1  * 


CHAPTEK      I. 

NATURE   OF    LEVITICUS  —  DIVINE    INSPIRATION   OF  —  FULL  OF    THE 

GOSPEL  —  TYPICAL  TEACHING JESUS  IN   LEVITICUS HEATHEN 

AND  JEWISH  SACRIFICES HOLOCAUST  —  NATURE  OF  —  ANYONE 

MIGHT  KILL  THE  VICTIM A  PRIEST  ONLY  COULD  OFFER  IT. 

We  shall  find  in  the  course  of  our  reading  of  this  the  third 
book  in  the  Pentateuch,  some  of  the  most  illustrative  symbols 
of  the  distinctive  peculiarities  of  the  blessed  Gospel  and  of 
the  religion  of  Christ  that  are  found  in  any  part  of  the  whole 
Bible.  Many  have  been  inclined  to  regard  this  book  as  if 
it  were  the  record  of  an  economy  so  obsolete  that  little  or  no 
evangelical  instruction  or  profit  can  be  extracted  from  it  now ; 
but  this  is  great  mistake  and  misapprehension :  it  is  the 
Gospel  according  to  Levi,  and  speaks  of  Christ,  as  the  first 
book  in  the  New  Testament  is  the  Gospel  according  to  St. 
Matthew.  It  is  the  Gospel  veiled  under  the  shadows  and 
types  that  remained  for  a  season  the  vehicles  of  truth ;  most 
of  which  we  can  explain,  some  of  which  we  cannot  see  the 
reason  of  now,  but  all  of  which,  as  instituted  by  a  wise,  a 
glorious,  and  a  good  God,  we  are  sure  had  their  end,  and 
were  designed  to  teach  his  family  in  their  use  and  their  sig- 
nificance. 

The  book  is  called  by  us  Leviticus,  from  the  Septuagint 
translation  ItvLTiKov,  meaning  that  which  concerns  or  relates 
to  the  Levites  or  the  ordinances  of  Levi.  All  the  ofiicers  of 
Israel  were  called  Levites ;  but  some  of  the  Levites  were 
priests,  and  others  of  the  Levites  were  not.  Many  people 
(6) 


I 


LEVITICUS    I.  7 

make  a  distinction  between  "  priest "  and  "  Levite  "  which  is 
not  always  correct.  All  priests  Avere  Levites,  but  all  Levites 
were  not  priests.  The  book  is  named  after  the  Levite  or 
the  Levitical  services,  sacrilices,  and  rites.  We  derive  its 
name  from  the  Vulgate,  Leviticus ;  but  in  the  Hebrew,  and 
by  a  Jew,  it  is  not  called  by  that  name ;  it  is  called  Va-yikra 
—  the  Third  Book  of  Moses,  commonly  called  Va-yikra; 
and  the  reason  that  they  call  it  so  is  from  a  usage  I  ex- 
plained in  our  readings  on  Genesis  and  Exodus.  The  first 
words  of  the  chapter  are,  "And  the  Lord  called  unto  Moses : " 
or,  as  it  is  strictly  in  the  Hebrew  —  for  "  Lord  "  is  put  in  by 
our  translators  —  "And  He  called  unto  Moses."  These 
words  are  its  Jewish  title.  But  what  "  He  ?  "  The  "  He  " 
who  in  the  previous  chapter,  in  the  form  of  the  pillar  of 
cloud  by  day,  and  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  took  up  his  res- 
idence between  the  cherubim  on  the  mercy-seat,  and  from 
that  place  gave  forth  responses  to  the  children  of  Israel. 

The  time  occupied  by  the  transactions  recorded  in  this 
book  is  extremely  short.  It  is  supposed,  from  very  fair  and 
conclusive  calculations,  that  the  whole  of  it  occupied  only 
one  month  in  the  desert  —  the  whole  of  the  arrangements 
were  given  in  the  course  of  one  month.  That  the  book  was 
written  by  Moses,  that  it  is  otherwise  inspired,  is  quite  plain  : 
first,  from  the  fact  that  the  Jews,  whatever  were  their  fiiults, 
never  failed  in  any  one  thing  in  being  the  custodiers  and 
guardians  of  the  purity  and  integrity  of  the  Sacred  Volume. 
It  was  left  for  a  corrupt  section  of  the  professing  church  in 
the  West  to  corrupt  the  Old  Testament  by  adding  the 
Apocryphal  books;  the  Jews  never  accepted  them.  Our 
blessed  Lord  rebuked  them  for  making  void  the  Law  by 
tradition  :  he  rebuked  them  for  omitting  to  keep  it ;  but  he 
never  rebuked  them  for  having  corrupted  it  by  adding  to  it, 
nor  subtracting  from  it.  Whatever  their  sins  were,  they 
were  not  chargeable  with  the  sin  of  unfaitlifulness  in  the 
guardianship  of  the  Sacred  Oracle.     This  is  also  quoted  by 


■8  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

our  Lord  in  tlie  GosjDels ;  it  is  quoted  in  the  New  Testmiient 
as  Sacred  Scripture,  and  is  expressly  and  therefore  divinely 
ascribed  to  Moses. 

I  have  said  that  this  is  the  Gospel  according  to  Levi. 
You  will  find  the  Gospel  in  this  book  only  under  its  peculiar 
shadows  ;  the  difference  between  it  and  the  Gospel  according 
to  St.  Matthew  is,  —  this  is  gold  in  the  mine ;  the  Gospel  of  St. 
Matthew  is  gold  bearing  the  great  king's  image,  and  in  cur- 
rency. The  one  needs  to  be  extracted  by  one  that  knows  the 
truth  ;  the  other  is  already  taken,  and  in  currency  among  man- 
kind. I  have  no  doubt  that  some  Jews  saw  nothing  in  Levit- 
icus but  the  sacrifices  ;  just  as  the  Jews  at  the  present  day  see 
nothing  but  the  altar  —  the  veil  being  upon  their  hearts :  but 
many  a  Jew,  like  Simeon  and  Anna  at  the  advent  of  our  Lord 
—  like  David  and  Isaiah  long  before  —  saw  Christ  in  these  ; 
or,  like  Abraham,  not  only  saw  him,  but  rejoiced  while  they 
saw  him  through  the  sacrifices  that  foreshadowed  him. 

It  has  been  supposed,  and  is  indeed  asserted  by  most  di- 
vines, that  a  type,  meaning  something  which  waits  to  be 
filled  up,  some  impression  which  waits  to  be  illuminated,  or 
symbols,  were  only  meant  for  the  infancy  of  the  church,  and 
that  now-a-days  we  can  do  without  them.  But  it  is  a  sin- 
gular difficulty  in  the  way  of  such  conclusion  as  this,  that 
nothing  is  so  popular  in  the  present  day  as  what  is  analo- 
gous to  a  type,  the  parable,  the  allegory,  the  fable,  the  in- 
teresting tale  or  story ;  as  if  there  was  something  in  man's 
constitution  that  makes  truth  conveyed  in  the  form  of  a  par- 
able, an  allegory,  or  a  fable,  more  beautiful  and  acceptable 
to  him.  For  instance,  the  most  popular  book  in  the  Eng- 
lish tongue  is  Bunyan's  "  Pilgrim's  Progress ; "  which  is 
just  a  sort  of  typical  story,  a  sort  of  allegory,  representative 
of  great  truths  that  are  concealed  under  it.  One  of  the  rea- 
sons of  it  is  no  doubt  this,  that  between  God's  spiritual 
world  and  God's  material  world  there  are  latent  links,  and 
ties,  and  silent  harmonies,  that  render  the  one  the  illustration 


LEVITICUS    I.  9 

of  the  other,  .ind  botli  still  beautiful  and  welcome  to  him  that 
seeks  true  instruction.  There  is  no  doubt  that,  in  the  whole 
of  this  book,  Jesus  is  the  gi'eat  Alpha  and  Omega.  He  him- 
self says,  "  Moses  wrote  of  me."  AVhcre  did  Moses  write  of 
Christ :  He  does  not  mention  his  name  :  yet  he  writes  of 
him,  and  predicts  him,  and  speaks  of  him,  and  he  explains 
him.  And  when  Jesus  preached  himself,  what  did  he  do? 
"  Beginning  at  Moses  and  the  prophets,  he  showed  them  that 
he  must  needs  suffer,  and  rise  again  from  the  dead." 

Now  in  the  first  verse  of  this  chapter  it  states  that  "  the 
Lord  called  unto  Moses."  There  is  no  doubt  from  "the 
Lord  "  not  being  in  the  Hebrew,  but  a  reference  or  relative 
— "  he,"  the  personal  pronoun  carries  us  back  to  the  last 
person  spoken  of;  that  the  reference  is,  therefore,  to  the 
cloud  being  on  the  tabernacle,  and  God  revealed  in  it ;  that 
therefore  it  was  from  the  cloud  on  the  mercy-seat  —  no  lon- 
ger marching  in  the  desert  during  this  time,  but  located  be- 
tween the  cherubim  —  that  God  spake  to  Moses,  and  told 
him  these  things. 

Then  the  sacrifices  instituted  here.  If  you  will  be  at  the 
trouble  to  read  the  history  of  heathen  sacrifices,  by  the  most 
polished  Greeks  or  by  the  warlike  Romans,  you  will  find  so 
many  accompaniments  of  puerilities,  childishness,  supersti- 
tion, divination,  that  you  will  be  constrained  to  acknowledge 
they  cannot  be  from  God.  But  these  sacrifices  of  Levi, 
however  minute  the  prescriptions  were,  have  about  them  a 
plainness,  a  simphcity  —  I  would  say,  notwithstanding  their 
peculiar  and  painful  character  —  a  majesty,  that  indicate 
their  origin  to  be  from  God. 

The  first  sacrifice  mentioned  is  called  "the  whole  burnt- 
offering  ; "  sometimes  called  a  holocaust.  A  holocaust  is  de- 
rived from  two  Greek  words  meaning  "  a  whole  burnt-offer- 
ing ; "  and  those  sacrifices  of  animals  which  are  described  in 
this  chapter  were  all  of  them  of  that  description  —  that  is, 
they  were  totally  consumed ;  not  one  fragment  was  left  be- 


10  SCRIPTUKE    READINGS. 

hind  —  they  were  totally  consumed  upon  the  altar ;  as  if  to 
indicate  the  exhaustion  of  them  by  the  fiery  wrath  or  judg- 
ment which  consumed  them.  We  observe  that  the  sacri- 
fices that  were  offered,  as  stated  in  the  third  verse,  must  be 
without  blemish.  Now  there  must  be  some  design  in  that 
—  they  were  to  be  spotless  and  without  blemish.  And  when 
we  open  the  New  Testament,  and  find  Christ  described  as 
"  a  lamb  without  blemish,"  we  then  see  at  once  that  there 
must  have  been  here  a  prefiguration  of  "  the  Lamb  of  God 
which  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world."  The  sacrifices 
that  they  offered,  you  will  also  notice,  were  very  costly  and 
valuable ;  although,  in  mercy,  there  was  a  special  provision 
for  the  poor.  If  a  man  was  very  rich,  he  offered  an  ox  or 
a  bullock ;  but  if  he  was  not  very  rich,  he  offered  a  sheep 
or  a  lamb ;  if  he  was  very  poor  he  offered  what  is  here 
laid  down  —  "  an  offering  of  turtledoves,  or  of  young  pig- 
eons." And  you  will  recollect  the  Virgin  Mary,  when  she 
came  for  her  purification  into  the  temple,  made  this  offer- 
ing, which  was  a  silent  testimony  that,  whatever  her  descent 
was,  she  was  then  among  the  poor  of  the  2:)eople :  the  Le- 
vitical  economy  prescribing  offerings  for  every  man;  and 
holding  the  poor  woman's  ];)igeons  as  acceptable  a  sacrifice 
as  the  rich  man's  bullock  or  ox. 

In  the  next  place  you  will  notice,  that  the  sacrifices  were 
not  killed  by  the  priests  —  there  is  no  evidence  of  that.  In 
the  5th  verse,  we  read,  that  "  he,"  the  offerer,  "  shall  kill  the 
bullock  before  the  Lord ;  and  the  priests,  Aaron's  sons,  shall 
bring  the  blood  and  sprinkle  it."  Any  one  might  kill  the 
victim,  but  only  the  priest  might  take  the  blood,  and  sprinkle 
that  blood.  AVhen  our  blessed  Lord  was  slain,  he  was  slain 
by  the  wicked  and  the  profane  —  any  one  might  slay  the 
victim ;  but  he  himself,  the  Great  Priest,  could  alone  make 
the  atonement. 

We  read  in  the  next  place,  in  the  7th  verse,  "  And  the 
sons  of  Aaron  the  priest  shall  put  fire  npon  the  altar,  and 


LEVITICUS    I.      •  11 

lay  the  wood  in  order  upon  the  fire."  Now,  this  fire  was 
kindled  from  heaven.  It  is  the  origin  of  the  traditional  and 
superstitious  fire  of  the  heathen. 

I  find  the  strongest  corroboration  of  the  Divine  origin  of 
the  Bible  in  the  reflected,  and  refracted,  and  distorted  lights 
of  it  that  are  spread  through  heathendom.  You  can  see,  in 
their  traditional  corruptions,  that  there  must  have  been  a 
grand  original,  just  as  you  see,  in  a  forged  sovereign,  the 
e\'idence  of  a  real  sovereign.  So,  in  these  heathen  corrup- 
tions, you  are  referred  back  to  something  that  was  originally 
good,  and  from  God. 

The  very  fire  that  consumed  the  sacrifice  was  kindled 
from  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  and  the  pillar  of  cloud  by 
day  —  it  was  Divine  in  its  origin.  The  animal  that  was  to 
be  slain  must  be  brought  to  the  altar  that  was  within  the 
inclosure,  and  before  the  tabernacle,  and  there  slain ;  and  it 
must  be  consumed  by  that  fire  alone.  To  offer  upon  another 
altar  was  blasphemy,  to  consume  the  victim  by  other  fire  was 
also  regarded  as  blasphemy.  Only  upon  that  altar,  and  by 
that  fire,  and  in  that  place  prescribed  by  God  himself,  must 
sacrifice  be  made. 

You  will  notice  a  strange  law  here  —  that  the  legs  were 
to  be  washed.  It  seems  to  indicate  that  as  the  animal  offered 
must  be  without  blemish,  the  feet,  being  the  parts  that  came 
into  contact  with  the  earth,  must  be  cleansed ;  and  in  order 
that  the  spotlessness  of  the  victim  might  be  constantly  ex- 
hibited, and  the  fact  of  its  spotlessness  thoroughly  impressed 
upon  the  national  mind,  the  feet  were  required  to  be  washed 
before  the  animal  could  be  slain. 

Great  ideas  were  latent  under  these  provisions,  and  those 
ideas  fructified  like  seeds  in  the  national  mind,  till  the  ful- 
ness of  the  time  came,  when  all  the  shadows  and  types  and 
symbols  of  Levi  passed  away,  and  the  glorious  realities  of 
Christ  crucified  dawned  upon  a  waiting  and  a  longing  world. 

On  verse  4,  Bush  makes  the  following  just  observations  :  -— 


12  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

"  The  original  word  1D^  haphar  signifies  primarily,  to  cover; 
not  so  much,  however,  in  the  sense  of  ivrapping  as  with  a 
garment,  as  in  that  of  smearing  or  plastering^  it  being  applied, 
Gen.  vi.  14,  to  the  act  of  coating  the  ark  with  pitch.  Its 
radical  sense,  therefore,  is  rather  that  of  an  adhesive  than  a 
loose  covering.  From  this  primary  notion  of  covering^  it  came 
to  be  applied  by  metaphorical  usage  to  the  appeasing  of  anger 
or  to  that  act  of  an  offending  party  by  wdiich  he  succeeds  in 
procuring  favor  and  forgiveness  from  the  person  or  party 
offended.  In  this  sense  it  is  aj^plied  to  the  appeasing  of  an 
angry  countenance,  Gen.  xxxii.  20,  '  For  he  said,  I  will  ap- 
pease him  (Heb.  wall  cover  his  face)  with  the  present.'  2 
Sam.  xxi.  o,  '  What  shall  I  do  for  you,  and  wherewith  shall 
I  make  the  atonement'}''  (Heb.  cover.)  Prov.  xvi.  14,  'The 
wrath  of  a  king  is  as  messengers  of  death  :  but  a  wise  man 
wall  pacify  it.'  (Heb.  will  cover  it.)  Its  predominant  usage 
is  in  relation  to  the  recoriciliation  effected  between  God  and 
sinners,  in  which  sense  atonement  for  sin  is  the  covering  of 
sin,  or  the  securing  the  sinner  from  punishment.  Thus, 
when  sin  is  pardoned,  or  its  consequent  calamity  removed, 
the  sin  or  person  may  be  said  to  be  covered,  made  safe,  expi- 
ated, or  atoned.  Accordingly  we  find  the  pardon  of  sin  ex- 
pressly called  the  covering  of  sin,  Nehem.  iv.  4,  5,  '  Our  God 
give  them  for  a  prey  in  the  land  of  captivity,  and  cover  not 
their  iniquity,  and  let  not  their  sin  be  blotted  out  from  be- 
fore thee.'  Ps.  xxxii.  1,  '  Blessed  is  he  whose  transgression 
is  forgiven,  whose  sin  is  covered.'  Ps  Ixxxv.  2,  '  Thou  hast 
brought  back  the  captivity  of  Jacob  ;  thou  hast  forgiven  the 
iniquity  of  thy  people ;  thou  hast  covered  all  their  sin.'  All 
such  expiatory  offerings  pointed  directly  to  Christ,  wdio  is 
the  grand  atonement  or  reconciliation  for  the  sins  of  men. 
Dan.  ix.  24.  1  John  ii.  2.  Heb.  x.  8,  10.  The  burnt- 
offering,  it  is  to  be  observed,  had  not,  like  the  sin-ofiering, 
respect  to  any  particular  sin,  but  w^as  designed  to  make 
atonement  for  sin  in  general.     Thus  it  is  said  of  Job,  ch.  i. 


LEVITICUS    I.  13 

5,  that  be  *  offered  burnt-offerings,'  (saying,)  '  It  may  be  that 
my  sons  have  sinned.' " 

Thus  do  we  find  the  glorious  Gospel.  Thus  clearly  does 
the  glad  sound  ring  in  the  desert,  and  around  Mount  Sinai, 
and  amid  the  far  spread  tents  of  Israel.  God  never  left 
Himself  without  a  witness,  nor  His  precious  Gospel  without 
a  testimony.  In  shaxiow  or  in  light  it  has  been  from  the 
beginning. 

2 


CHAPTER    II. 

EXriATORY  AND  EUCHARISTIC  OFFERINGS  —  BIBLE  HAS  VARIOUS 
ADAPTATIONS  —  REASONS  OF  MINUTE  PRESCRIPTIONS  —  DIFFER- 
ENCE OF  RITES  OF  JEWISH  AND  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMIES — ATONE- 
MENT THE  BASIS  OF  SPIRITUAL   OFFERINGS CAIN  AND  ABEL 

THE  POOR —  LEAVEN  —  FIRST-FRUITS. 

You  will  recollect  that  we  read  in  the  Book  of  Exodus, 
which  we  have  now  finished,  the  account  of  that  beautiful 
creation  in  the  desert  called  the  Tabernacle  of  the  Lord ; 
the  commencement  or  the  dim  outline  of  the  more  magnifi- 
cent Temple  of  Solomon,  which  again  has  given  way  to  a 
yet  more  glorious  thing,  though  not  glorious  in  the  eyes  of 
this  world  —  a  spiritual  house,  a  holy  priesthood,  a  chosen 
generation,  to  show  forth,  by  purer  and  more  sacred  rites, 
the  praises  of  Him  who  hath  called  us  from  darkness  into 
his  marvellous  light. 

Having  seen  and  studied  the  house,  with  all  its  material, 
and  also  having  read  of  the  altar,  and  all  the  furniture  of 
the  house,  we  come  now  very  naturally  in  proper  order  to 
the  worship  that  was  to  be  carried  on  in  that  house.  In  the 
first  chapter  we  have  seen  the  expiatory  rites  —  which  we 
read,  as  you  recollect,  last  Sunday  morning:  sacrifices  of 
animals  —  bulls,  or  rams,  or  goats ;  blood  being  shed  and 
therefore  expiatory  and  atoning  sacrifices  ;  I  mean  in  their 
reference ;  which  were  to  be  offered  up  on  the  brazen  altar 
without. 

In  this  second  chapter  we  come  to  a  totally  distinct  class 
of  offerings,  which  were   not   expiatory,  but   eucharistic; 

(14) 


LEVITICUS    II.  15 

which  had  nothing  to  do  with  any  reference  to  the  atone- 
ment for  sin,  but  simply  to  do  with  the  exjjression  of  indi- 
vidual hearts,  as  grateful  to  God  for  the  mercies  that  he 
had  bestowed  upon  them  ;  and  following  not  superseding 
the  sacrificial  rites ;  just  as  the  Lord's  Supper  follows  the 
Great  Atonement  made  upon  the  altar  once  for  all  for  the 
sins  of  the  guilty.  These  chapters  that  we  have  read  are 
intensely  interesting  and  most  appropriate  for  public  read- 
ing. There  are  parts  of  the  Bible  most  appropriate  for 
being  read  in  the  sanctuary ;  parts  of  the  Bible  more  appro- 
priate to  be  read  in  the  family;  and  some  parts  of  it  exclu- 
sively to  be  read  by  individuals ;  but  each  part  beautiful  in 
its  place,  suitable  in  its  season  ;  and  all  parts  inspired  by 
Him  from  whom  cometh  down  every  good  and  every  perfect 
gift.  And  it  seems  the  opposite  of  an  uninteresting  thing  to 
read  of  the  way  in  which  our  fathers  worshipped  God ;  or 
to  inquire  what  might  be  the  reasons  that  he  appointed 
these  apparently  cumbersome,  minute,  and  laborious  obser- 
vances, among  the  people  who  were  chosen  by  Him  to  be  a 
holy  nation,  and  to  be  the  types  and  representatives  of  the 
true  Israel  —  the  chosen  and  redeemed  people  of  God. 
The  reason  why  He  was  so  minute  in  the  appointment  of 
the  ceremonials  of  the  Tabernacle,  is  the  same  reason  why 
he  was  so  minute  in  his  prescriptions  for  the  construction  of 
the  Tabernacle.  Recollect  that  this  people  were  in  the 
midst  of  heathendom,  surrounded  by  Egyptians,  and  Ca- 
naanites,  and  idolaters  of  all  sorts ;  and  that  human  nature 
is  ever  prone  to  incorporate  with  itself,  because  a  fallen 
nature,  that  which  is  evil,  and  to  join  something  which  is 
unholy  to  that  which  is  holy.  The  tendency  of  this  people 
left  to  itself — even  left  to  itself  in  the  minutest  particu- 
lar —  ever  was  to  incorporate  with  its  rites  the  rites  of  the 
heathen,  and  grossly  and  criminally  to  apostatize  from  the 
worship  and  the  service  of  the  true  and  the  living  God. 
They,  therefore,  were  under  mechanical  arrangements  most 


16  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

rigid,  most  unbending.  "We  are  under  moral  arrangements, 
where  principles  are  laid  down  by  which  we  are  to  regulate 
our  sacred  and  our  every-day  practice :  the  Jewish  economy 
was  a  Church  that  had  not  only  principles,  but  prescriptions, 
minute,  mechanical,  and  exact,  in  which  they  were  kept  in 
bondage,  chained  and  fastened  to  certain  given  rites  of  wor- 
ship and  sacrifice;  we,  under  the  Christian  economy,  are 
emancipated  from  the  mechanical,  but  still  under  the  reach 
and  range  of  the  moral :  we  are  left  with  regulating  truths 
to  carry  those  truths  out.  Our  duty  is  prescribed  ;  our  doc- 
trine is  laid  down ;  but  the  application  of  both  to  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  world,  as  they  arise  in  it,  is  left  to  our- 
selves, under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  in  close 
and  frequent  application  to  God's  Holy  Word. 

Now,  I  have  said  the  first  chapter  is  an  account  of  offer- 
ings typical  of  the  one  Atonement  made  once  for  all.  The 
second  chapter  is  the  account  of  eucharistic  offerings,  which 
are  typical  of  those  mentioned  in  the  New  Testament,  where 
it  is  said,  "  To  do  good  and  to  communicate  forget  not,  for 
with  such  sacrifices  "  —  typified  by  these  in  the  second  chap- 
ter — "  God  is  well  pleased."  And  again,  where  he  says, 
"  I  beseech  you,  therefore,  brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God, 
that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,"  —  in  opposi- 
tion to  these  dead  ones,  —  "  which  is  your  reasonable  "  and 
your  acceptable  "  service." 

You  have,  therefore,  in  the  first  chapter,  the  Jews  wor- 
shipping God  through  Christ,  the  slain  Lamb ;  you  have 
them  in  the  second  chapter  presenting,  still  through  the 
pleading  and  interceding  high-priest,  spiritual  sacrifices  ac- 
cm-ding  to  the  nature  of  that  economy,  acceptable  to  God 
through  Jesus  Christ. 

This  cliapter  begins  by  saying,  "And  when  any  will  offer 
a  meat-offering."  That  meat-offering  is  simj)ly  an  expres- 
sion of  thanksgiving,  consisting  of  corn,  or  flour,  or  bread 
of  any  kind.     It  is  the  word  mincliacorhan^  the  same  word 


LEVITICUS    II.  17 

that  occurs  in  the  New  Testament ;  if  any  shall  deprive  his 
father,  or  his  mother,  or  his  poor  relative  of  that  support 
which  is  due,  and  shall  contribute  to  what  is  called  in  Rome 
"  a  pious  use,"  or  do  what  we  should  call  robbing  parents  in 
order  to  enrich  the  priesthood — if  any  one  shall  do  so,  and 
call  it  corhan  devoted  to  God,  such  a  one  is  guilty,  to  say 
the  least,  of  great  hypocrisy,  or  is  a  great  fanatic.  Now, 
the  word  for  offering  is  used  for  something  consecrated  or 
dedicated  to  God ;  and  it  is  here  called  mincha,  not  an 
atoning  offering,  not  expiatory  offering,  but  the  meat-offer- 
ing, dedicated  or  consecrated  to  God,  It  is  very  remarka- 
ble, in  the  original  Hebrew  of  the  1st  verse,  "  AVhen  any 
will  offer "  —  it  is,  "  When  any  soul  will  offer,"  to  denote 
that,  while  the  offering  was  so  mechanical,  it  was  to  be 
the  offering  of  the  soul,  and  not  the  mere  offering  of  the 
body. 

Daniel  alludes,  in  his  prophecy,  to  the  distinction  between 
the  1st  and  2d  chapters,  when  he  says  that  the  great  Anti- 
christ shall  cause  the  "  sacrifice  and  the  oblation  "  to  cease. 
We  have  the  "  sacrifice  "  in  the  first  chapter  of  Leviticus, 
and  the  oblation  in  the  second ;  both  fulfilled  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Now,  this  arrangement  of  the  meat-offering 
after  the  victim  is  slain,  you  will  observe,  is  made  in  order 
to  show  us  that  every  spiritual  offering  must  be  based  on 
and  flow  from  an  atonement :  the  atonement  first,  the  spir- 
itual offering  next.  So  you  have  in  the  first  chapter  the 
atonement ;  in  the  second,  that  which  flows  from  it  —  spirit- 
ual or  eucharistic  offerings.  Now,  the  defect  in  Cain's 
worship,  apart  from  his  nature,  was  this :  Cain  believed  the 
second  chapter,  —  though  I  am  speaking  by  anticipation, 
because  these  chapters  were  not  then  written ;  —  he  offered 
the  mincha,  that  is,  the  meat-offering,  or  the  offering  of 
corn,  of  flour,  or  of  bread ;  Abel  believed  the  first  chapter, 
and  felt  that  he  ought  to  attend  to  it  before  he  ventured  on 
the  second.     The  difference  between  the  two  was  this  :  — 

2* 


18  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

Abel's  offering  was  an  expiatory  one  —  a  lamb  slain,  accord- 
ing to  the  prescriptions  of  the  first  chapter ;  therefore,  Abel 
believed  in  sin's  havoc,  and  in  sin's  forgiveness,  in  the  blood 
that  can  wash  it  away.  Cain  passed  by  the  first  chapter, 
and  regarded  only  the  second ;  disbelieving  in  the  entrance 
of  sin,  and  therefore  in  the  necessity  of  atonement;  and 
thinking  that  such  offerings  as  his  father  and  mother  pre- 
sented in  Paradise,  before  their  fall,  would  still  be  accepted 
by  God. 

In  the  first  of  these  chapters,  we  have  the  first  great  les- 
son —  "  Without  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission ; " 
in  the  second  chapter  you  have  the  next  lesson,  that 
wherever  there  is  pardon  for  sin,  there  will  be  holiness  of 
life,  renunciation  of  sin,  and  consecration  of  ourselves  to 
God,  as  a  ceaseless  sacrifice. 

Then,  in  the  next  place,  you  will  ask.  Why  these  varieties 
of  offering?  It  speaks  in  one  place  of  the  meat-offering 
with  oil  and  frankincense ;  the  next  place,  of  flour  baked  in 
the  oven  ;  in  the  next  place,  of  green  corn.  Why  this  vari- 
ety ?  It  is  just  one  of  those  traits  that  indicate  that  the 
God  that  made  creation  has  inspired  the  Bible.  He  is  here 
providing  for  the  poor  man  as  minutely  as  for  the  rich.  He 
says,  If  you  are  a  rich  man,  and  can  give  a  valuable  and  a 
costly  offering,  it  is  your  duty  to  do  so ;  but  if  you  are  a 
j)oor  man,  then  offer  that  offering  which  agrees  with  your 
position ;  and  be  sure  that  the  poor  man's  offering  of  twenty 
seeds  of  corn  will  be  as  acceptable  to  God  as  the  rich  man's 
offering  of  the  finest  flour  perfumed  with  costly  frankin- 
cense, and  anointed  and  consecrated  with  the  most  precious 
oil.  It  is  a  beautiful  thought  of  our  heavenly  Father,  that 
the  archangel  that  is  nearest  to  his  throne  is  not  dearer  to 
him  nor  more  watched  by  him  than  the  poorest  widow  or 
orphan  that  weeps  and  prays,  and  looks  and  leans  on  him  in 
the  streets  of  this  great  metropolis.  It  is  one  of  those  traits 
that  come  out  incidentally  in  the  Bible,  indicatmg  the  har- 


LEVITICUS    II.  19 

mony  between  a  God  that  made  tlie  now  torn  and  stained 
book  —  the  earth,  and  that  inspired  the  perfect  and  holy 
Book  —  his  own  gracious  AVord. 

You  will  notice,  too,  certain  regulations  here  that  had  a 
moral  significance.  One,  for  instance,  was  that  there  should 
be  no  leaven  introduced  into  the  sacrifice.  The  apostle  car- 
ries out  that  idea  when  he  says,  "  Therefore  let  us  keep  the 
feast  not  with  old  leaven,  neither  with  the  leaven  of  malice 
and  wickedness ;  but  with  the  unleavened  bread  of  sincerity 
and  truth  "  —  indicating  the  moral  character  of  the  offerer. 
You  will  see  the  frankincense,  too,  that  was  to  be  added  to 
the  offering,  and  how  the  apostle  alludes  to  it  in  the  New 
Testament :  — "  We  are  a  sweet  savor  to  them ; "  and 
again  —  "An  offering  of  sweet  savor  unto  God ; "  —  mean- 
ing God's  acceptance  of  our  services  through  Christ  Jesus ; 
by  whom  they  are  most  welcome  in  his  sight,  and  most  pre- 
cious to  him.  Again,  we  read  of  oil  used  to  anoint  the 
sacrifice.  The  apostle  alludes  to  this,  when  he  says,  "  Ye 
have  an  unction"  —  that  means  an  anointing  with  oil — "of 
the  Holy  One ;  ye  know  all  things ; "  and  Christians  are, 
literally  translated,  "  men  who  are  covered  with  oil  "  —  that 
is,  consecrated  men  ;  the  sacred  consecrating  oil  of  the  sanc- 
tuary being  imitable  by  no  man,  and  denoting  one  who  is 
set  apart  or  consecrated  to  God. 

Then  you  will  notice  here  a  provision  for  the  priests  ;  in 
every  part  of  this  chapter  there  is  a  provision  for  them. 
Aaron  and  his  sons  were  to  have  a  certain  portion.  And  so 
the  apostle,  when  he  alludes  to  this,  says  that  it  is  right  and 
reasonable  that  they  that  minister  by  the  altar  —  evidently 
alluding  to  the  ancient  economy —  should  live  by  the  altar; 
which  alludes  to  this  very  passage,  and  to  the  regulation 
that  is  here  laid  down.  "  Do  ye  not  know  that  they  w^hich 
minister  about  holy  things  live  of  the  things  of  the  temple  ? 
and  they  which  wait  at  the  altar  are  partakers  with  the 


20  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

altar?  Even  so  hath  the  Lord  ordained  that  they  which 
preach  the  Gospel  should  live  of  the  Gospel." 

In  the  next  place,  there  was  not  only  to  be  the  absence 
of  leaven  in  the  sacrifices,  but  there  was  to  be  the  presence 
of  salt,  which  is  always  used  throughout  the  Scripture  as 
the  symbol  of  perfection.  Bush  makes  the  following  in- 
structive criticisms  on  this  usage  :  — 

'■'■Every  oblation  of  thy  meat-offering  skalt  thou  season  ivith 
salt.  Salt  is  the  opposite  to  leaven,  as  it  preserves  from 
putrefaction  and  corruption,  and  was  therefore  used  to  sig- 
nify the  purity  and  pe7-severiny  Jidelity  necessary  in  the  wor- 
shippers of  God.  It  was  called  the  '  salt  of  the  covenant,' 
because  as  salt  was  incorruptible,  so  was  the  covenant  and 
promise  of  Jehovah,  which  on  this  account  is  called  (2 
Chron.  xiii.  5)  *  a  covenant  of  salt ; '  i.  e.  an  everlasting 
covenant.  But  in  order  to  obtain  an  adequate  idea  of  the 
reasons  which  prompted  the  use  of  this  article,  and  made  it 
so  indispensable  in  the  services  of  the  Jewish  altar,  we  are 
to  remember  that  the  sacrifices  were  a  kind  of  feast,  in 
which  those  who  partook  of  them  were  for  the  time  being 
the  guests  of  God,  and  eating  and  drinking  at  his  table. 
But  it  was  by  eating  and  drinking  together,  that  all  impor- 
tant covenants  were  anciently  ratified  and  confirmed ;  and 
as  salt  was,  of  course,  never  wanting  at  such  entertain- 
ments, it  came  at  length  to  be  regarded  as  a  symbol  of 
friendship,  and  the  phrase  *  covenant  of  salt  *  was  but  anoth- 
er name  for  the  most  firm,  enduring,  and  inviolable  compact. 
In  like  manner,  salt  among  the  ancients  was  the  emblem  of 
friendship  and  fidelity,  and  therefore  was  used  in  all  their 
sacrifices  and  covenants.  No  part  of  their  religious  ceremo- 
nies is  more  prominent  than  that  which  consists  in  the  use 
of  salt.     Thus  in  Virgil,  ^n.  Lib.  II.  1.  133  :  — 

*  Mihi  sacra  parari 
Et  salsaj  fi'uges,  ct  circum  tcmpora  vittse/ 


LEVITICUS    II.  21 

*  For  me  the  sacred  rites  were  prepared,  and  the  salted  cake 
and  fillets  to  bind  about  my  temples/  Servius'  explanation 
is,  *  Salt  and  barley,  called  salted  meal,  with  which  they 
used  to  sprinkle  the  forehead  of  the  victim,  the  sacrificial 
fire,  and  the  knives.'  From  the  '  mola  salsa,'  salted  cake,  of 
the  Latins,  were  derived  the  words,  immolo,  tmmolaiio,  t.n 
WDiiolate,  hmnolation,  and  this  by  synecdoche  came  to  be  ap- 
plied to  the  whole  process  of  sacrificing.  So  after  the  salted 
meal  it  was  customary  to  pour  wine  on  the  head  of  the  vic- 
tim, which  by  that  ceremony  was  said  to  be  macta^  i.  e. 
magis  aucta,  augmented  or  increased,  whence  the  term  mac- 
tatio  in  the  heathen  sacrifices  to  express  the  killing  of  the 
victim  immediately  after  the  affusion  of  the  wine.  But  as 
to  the  sacred  use  of  salt.  Homer  affords  several  distinct 
allusions  to  it  in  the  religious  rites  mentioned  in  the  Iliad. 
Thus:  — 

*  Then  near  the  altar  of  the  darting  king, 
Disposed  in  rank,  tlieir  hecatomb  they  bring; 
With  water  purify  their  hands,  and  take 
The  sacred  oftering  of  the  salted  cake.' 

III.  1. 1.  584. 

"  And  again :  — 

'Above  the  coals  the  smoking  fragment  burns, 
And  sprinkles  sacred  salt  from  lifted  urns.' 
II.  IX.  1.  281. 

Nearly  every  traveller  who  has  visited  the  modern  nations 
of  the  East,  has  furnished  us  with  striking  anecdotes  illus- 
trative of  the  sacredness  with  which  salt  was  regarded  as 
an  emblem  of  fidelity  in  all  their  compacts.  Thus  Baron 
Du  Tott,  speaking  of  one  who  was  desirous  of  his  acquaint- 
ance, says,  upon  his  departure,  '  He  promised  in  a  short 
time  to  return.  I  had  already  attended  him  half-way  down 
the  staircase,  when  stopping,  and  turning  briskly  to  one  of 
my  domestics,  Bring  me  directly^  said  he,  some  bread  and 


22  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

salt.  ^Yhat  he  requested  was  brought ;  when,  taking  a  little 
salt  between  his  fingers,  and  putting  it  with  a  mysterious  air 
on  a  bit  of  bread,  he  ate  with  a  devout  gravity,  assuring  me 
that  I  might  now  rely  on  him.'  And  D'Herbelot  remarks, 
that  '  among  other  exploits  which  are  recorded  of  Jacouh 
hen  Laitk,  he  is  said  to  have  broken  into  a  palace,  and  hav- 
ing collected  a  very  large  booty,  which  he  was  on  the  point 
of  carrying  away,  he  found  his  foot  kicked  something  which 
made  him  stumble ;  putting  it  to  his  mouth,  the  better  to 
distinguish  it,  his  tongue  soon  informed  him  it  was  a  lump 
of  salt ;  upon  this,  according  to  the  morality,  or  rather 
superstition,  of  the  country,  where  the  people  considered 
salt  as  a  pledge  of  hospitality,  he  was  so  touched  that  he 
left  all  his  booty.' " 

Such  allusions  as  these  are  also  explained  by  this :  "  Let 
your  sacrifices  be  always  with  salt "  —  that  is,  seasoned  with 
grace.  And  again  he  says,  "  Every  sacrifice  shall  be  sea- 
soned with  salt "  —  that  is,  all  that  you  do  shall  spring  from 
a  pure  heart,  a  pure  motive,  and  for  a  holy  and  good  end. 

And  then  the  first-fruits  were  to  be  ofiered  to  God ;  and 
so,  in  the  same  manner,  we  ought  to  make  an  offering  to 
God  of  that  which  we  have  in  the  greatest  abundance.  If 
you  have  been  made  in  the  year  1853  unexpectedly  rich, 
you  ought  to  present  an  offering  of  first-fruits  of  that.  If 
you  enjoy  unexpected  health,  you  ought  in  some  shape  to 
express  your  thankfulness  to  God  for  it.  If  you  possess 
domestic  mercies,  national  mercies,  social  mercies,  do  not 
forget  to  give ;  let  not  the  gift  blind  your  eyes  to  the  Giver, 
but  for  all  that  you  have  received  give  thanks  to  him  who 
gives  the  gift,  and  when  he  takes  it  away,  puts  himself  in 
the  vacuum  that  is  left  behind,  more  precious  than  the  gift 
that  has  taken  wings  and  departed. 


CHAPTER    III. 

INSULATION  OF  JEWS — DESIGNED  TO  INCULCATE  IDEAS  OF  ATONE- 
MENT —  CHARACTER  OF  OFFERER  —  WHEN  THESE  OFFERINGS 
WERE  MADE  — RITES  — BLOOD  NOT  TO  BE  EATEN. 

You  will  remember  that  in  the  1st  chapter  of  Leviticus 
we  had  the  explanation  of  the  expiatory  or  atoning  victims 
that  were  commanded  by  God  to  be  offered  by  the  sons  of 
Levi ;  in  the  second  chapter,  which  we  read  last  Sunday 
morning,  we  had  the  meat-oiferings,  or  the  presentation  of 
ourselves  as  I  explained  —  a  living  sacrifice,  which  consti- 
tutes our  reasonable  service.  In  this  chapter  we  have  what 
are  called  "  the  peace-offerings,"  not  the  least  precious  or 
beautiful  part  of  the  ordinances  of  Levi.  Some  may  think 
that  these  prescriptions  are  so  needlessly  specific  and 
minute  that  they  appear  unworthy  of  the  God  that  insti- 
tuted them.  But  you  will  recollect  —  what  I  always  tried 
to  show  when  we  were  explaining  the  Tabernacle  —  that 
this  people  were  surrounded  by  dense  masses  of  heathenism, 
just  as  the  Dutch  are  by  the  sea ;  and  that  every  provision 
made  in  Israel  was  to  keep  at  bay  the  inrush  of  heathen- 
ism ;  and  to  present  a  people  that  should  be  the  witnesses 
of  God  in  spite  of  heathendom ;  and  the  very  rites  and  cere- 
monies that  they  were  to  practise  were  designedly  minute, 
that  there  might  be  no  opening  for  conformity  to  the  heathen, 
very  oflen  crossing  those  of  the  heathen ;  —  that  they  might 
be  a  marked,  a  distinctive,  and  a  peculiar  people.  There 
is,  therefore,  far  greater  wisdom  in  these  prescriptions  than 
strikes  the  superficial  reader.     And  another  reason  why  all 

(23) 


24  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

this  is  given  so  minutely  is,  that  the  great  subject  of  the 
teaching  of  Christianity  is  the  Atonement.  That  is  the 
heart  and  the  life  of  Christianity ;  all  else  without  that  is 
hard  and  dry ;  all  its  precepts  pervaded  by  that  are  full  of 
life,  and  not  hard.  Well,  then,  these  rites  and  ceremonies 
were  minute,  in  order  to  impress  upon  the  Jewish  mind, 
and  uj^on  the  mind  of  humanity  itself,  the  great  ideas  of 
substitution,  atonement,  vicarious  sacrifice ;  till  this  idea  be- 
came so  familiarized  to  the  hearts  of  mankind  that  they 
should  be  able  not  only  to  appreciate,  but  to  hail  with  grati- 
tude and  joy  that  perfect  atonement  of  which  these  were 
the  shadows  —  that  finished  Sacrifice  to  which  these  pointed 
as  John  the  Baptist  pointed  to  the  Saviour,  saying  each  of 
them  in  the  days  of  Levi,  "  We  are  voices  crying  in  the 
desert.  Behold  Jesus,  the  Lamb  of  God,  who  taketh  away 
the  sins  of  the  world."  This  third  chapter  relates  to  the 
third  kind  of  offering,  called  the  "peace-offering."  And 
these  three  different  sacrifices  are  alluded  to  by  the  prophet 
when  he  says,  "Though  ye  offer  me  burnt-offerings"  — 
that  is  one  sort  — "  and  your  meat-offerings,  I  will  not 
accept  them ;  neither  will  I  regard  the  peace-offerings  of 
your  fat  beasts."  This  is  Amos  the  prophet,  who  wrote 
about  seven  or  eight  hundred  years  before  the  birth  of 
Christ,  and  long  after  the  institution  of  these  sacrifices,  re- 
ferring to  them.  And  a  very  remarkable  feature  in  what 
Amos  says  is  this,  that  God  says,  "  I  reject  these ; "  to  prove 
that  these  were  not  the  only  things ;  but  that  the  most  splen- 
did offerings,  the  most  precious  holocaust,  were  all  unac- 
ceptable to  God,  unless  the  offerer  had  a  pure  heart,  and 
clean  hands,  and  lifted  not  up  his  eyes  to  vanity. 

Now,  these  peace-offerings  were  offered  first  of  all,  on  the 
recovery  of  peace  with  God  in  consequence  of  the  expia- 
tion. The  expiatory-offering  was  first,  not  the  peace-offer- 
ing: first  the  atonement,  then  the  calm  that  results  from 
peace  with   God   through   Christ   the   Atcnement.     These 


LEVITICUS    III.  25 

peace-offerings  were  also  presented  as  expressive  of  thanks- 
giving for  mercies,  blessings,  and  benefits  that  had  been 
received.  They  were  also  presented  on  the  performance 
of  a  vow  that  had  been  made  by  any  of  the  children  of 
Israel. 

You  will  notice  another  feature  in  all  these  offerings  — 
that  the  offerer  might  kill  the  lamb,  but  the  priest  of  Levi 
alone  might  offer  it :  so  Jew  and  Gentile  slew  with  wicked 
hands  the  Lord  of  glory,  but  he  himself  was  the  Priest  that 
presented  himself  a  sacrifice  on  the  altar  of  Deity,  perfect 
and  complete,  for  the  sins  of  all  that  believe. 

These  offerings  were  also  made,  I  may  mention,  at  the 
consecration  of  priests,  on  the  expiry  of  a  Nazarite's  vow, 
at  the  dedication  of  the  Tabernacle  and  the  Temple,  and  at 
the  presentation  of  first-fruits.  You  will  notice  that  in  the 
Jewish  economy  every  thing  brought  a  Jew  to  the  Temple, 
and  above  the  Temple,  to  the  Temple's  God.  Was  he 
afliicted  ?  He  prayed.  Was  he  merry  ?  He  sung  psalms. 
Was  he  blessed  with  a  golden  harvest  ?  He  gave  the  first- 
fruits  to  God.  Had  he  finished  a  vow  ?  He  went  to  God 
to  thank  him.  Had  he  received  any  mercy,  was  he  en- 
riched with  any  blessing  ?  He  felt  it  his  first  duty  to  ask 
God's  blessing,  to  give  to  God  praise,  and  to  expect  pros- 
perity in  the  ratio  in  which  he  did  so.  And  does  God 
expect  less  of  us  ?  Does  God  expect  less  of  us  in  this  dis- 
pensation ?  And  yet  how  often  do  we  murmur  when  we 
lose,  how  rarely  are  we  thankful  when  we  gain !  How  often 
are  we  dissatisfied  when  we  do  not  get  what  we  like,  or 
when  God  takes  what  he  thinks  best  —  and  how  rarely, 
when  we  are  prospered,  when  we  have  suddenly  become 
rich,  when  we  have  unexpectedly  become  great,  how  rarely 
does  the  blessing  prompt  us  to  go  to  God !  What  a  sad 
thing  is  human  nature  without  God  ;  when  it  suffers  it  rebels 
against  God ;  when  it  prospers  it  forgets  him.  But  when 
grace  has  changed  his  heart,  then  our  merry  days  make  U3 

3 


26  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

sing  psalms,  our  sad  days  make  us  trust  in  God,  and  our 
prosperity  and  our  adversity  equally  bring  us  to  him,  who 
sweetens  the  one  by  his  presence,  and  substitutes  himself 
for  the  loss  sustained  in  the  heart  of  the  sufferer. 

You  will  notice,  too,  in  this  account,  that  the  person  that 
made  the  offering  was  to  lay  his  hand  upon  the  head  of  the 
victim  that  was  slain.  What  a  beautiful  picture  is  that  of  our 
interest  in  Christ  Jesus  !  The  poor  Jew  —  though  this  was 
not  confessing  sin  in  this  chapter,  but  giving  thanks  —  yet 
whether  he  confessed  his  sins  or  gave  thanks  he  did  the 
same :  he  laid  his  hand  upon  the  head  of  the  victim,  con- 
fessed his  sins  over  it,  gave  thanks  over  it ;  and  all  the  sin 
Avas  transferred  typically  to  the  victim  that  suffered,  and  all 
the  glory  transferred  typically  to  him  who  was  the  great 
antitype  and  object  of  that  victim.  Thus  the  believer  still 
lays,  not  his  literal  hand  —  for  ours  is  the  economy  of  the 
spirit ;  whatever  a  Jew  did  materially,  mechanically,  palpa- 
bly, that  a  Christian  does  spiritually,  but  no  less  truly  and 
really.  The  Jew  laid  his  literal  hand  upon  a  literal  victim's 
head ;  the  Christian  lays  the  trust  of  his  heart  upon  an  un- 
seen but  not  an  unknown  Saviour.  I  say,  the  Jew  laid  his 
hand  upon  the  head  of  his  victim,  confessed  his  sins,  and 
was  forgiven ;  the  Christian  lays,  not  his  hand,  but  his 
heart,  not  upon  a  slain  bullock  or  a  slain  lamb,  but  on  a  once 
slain  but  now  living  Saviour.  And  as  sure  as  the  Jew  got 
ceremonial  forgiveness  by  doing  literally  that  act,  so  surely 
will  the  greatest  sinner  that  thus  leans,  and  looks  to,  and 
trusts  in  the  only  Atonement,  receive  the  pardon  and  the 
remission  of  his  sins.  The  great  thought  that  we  need  to 
inculcate  in  the  present  day  in  the  greatest  simplicity  is  the 
universal  offer  of  pardon  and  of  peace  in  Christ  Jesus. 

What  is  the  use  of  learned  professors,  as  I  told  you  last 
Sunday  morning,  preaching  limited  future  punishment,  when, 
as  I  told  you  tlien,  no  man  need  go  to  ruin  ?  Not  a  soul  in 
this  assembly  need  ever  perish ;  there  is  no  decree,  there  is 


LEVITICUS    III.  27 

no  preclestinn,tion,  tliat  drives  any  soul  to  holl ;  and  if  any 
man  goes  there,  he  goes  there  not  blind,  but  wilh  his  eyes 
open,  not  driven,  but  deliberately.  Heaven  is  wide  open ; 
the  price  of  entrance  is  free  to  the  oldest,  the  chiefest,  and 
the  worst  of  sinners ;  and  if  anybody  misses  heaven  it  will 
not  be  because  God  had  not  mercy  enough,  Christ's  Atone- 
ment had  not  efiicacy  enough,  but  because  you  would  not  be 
at  the  trouble  to  take  God's  way,  and  were  determined  to 
persist  in  your  own.  Thus  let  the  believer  lay  his  heart's 
trust  upon  Jesus,  and  have  peace. 

You  will  notice  here  that  eating  of  blood  was  forbidden ; 
that  was  merely  temporary,  purely  Jewish,  and  was  meant 
to  make  a  difference  between  the  Israelites  and  the  Gentiles  ; 
the  latter  drank  the  blood  of  the  sacrifices  they  offered ;  and 
secondly,  it  was  to  inspire  reverence  to  that  which  was  the 
symbol,  the  type,  and  the  foreshadow  of  the  shed  blood  of 
the  Son  of  God. 

How  thankful  we  should  be  to  God  that  we  have  a  more 
spiritual,  a  more  simple,  a  more  beautiful  dispensation  ;  we 
w^orship  God,  not  on  this  mount  nor  on  that,  nor  by  shedding 
the  blood  of  innocent  lambs,  but  leaning  on  a  sacriiice  finished 
1800  years  ago,  and  living  under  the  eye  of  the  Great  High 
Priest,  ever  present. 

In  tlie  second  place,  how  guilty  shall  we  be  if  the  Jews 
under  that  economy,  and  at  so  much  trouble,  rarely  omitted 
to  give  his  offering,  and  we,  to  whom  it  gives  no  trouble,  in 
whose  hearts  it  should  be  joy,  refuse  to  present  to  God  thanks- 
giving and  praise  for  his  mercies  !  If  they  were  so  attentive 
to  a  heavy,  burdensome  ritual,  are  our  hearts  right,  if  they 
do  not  prompt  us  to  praise  God,  when  that  praise  is  so  easy, 
and  the  offering  of  our  hearts  costs  us  so  little  ?  On  verse 
9,  Bush  gives  the  following  remarks:  — 

"  The  whole  rump.  Heb.  n?3'i>2n  H'^'bi^n  hdah/ah  temimah, 
the  perfect  or  entire  tail.     It  might  seem  extraordinary  that 


28  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

the  tail  of  a,  sheep  should  be  pointed  out  with  so  much  care 
as  a  suitable  offering  upon  God's  altar.  The  direction  indi- 
cates that  the  fat-tailed  species  were  usually  offered  in  sac- 
rifice, if  the  flocks  of  the  Hebrews  were  not  wholly  composed 
of  them. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

SACRIFICES  —  IN    HEATHENDOM    AS    AMONG     THE    JEWS VARIOUS 

SINS  OF  PARTIES  — IGNORANCE  HOW  FAR  EXCULPATORY ATONE- 
MENTS —  NUMBER  SEVEN  —  SACRIFICE  OFFERED  WITHOUT  THE 
GATE  —  OFFICIAL  RANK  AGGRAVATES  SIN — THE  VAIL. 

"We  come,  in  the  chapter  I  have  read,  to  a  fourth  class  of 
shis  and  transgressions  committed  against  God,  as  well  as  a 
fourth  peculiar  provision  for  such  sins  as  have  been  com- 
mitted in  ignorance  of  the  law  of  God,  or  in  ignorance  of  the 
nature  of  their  demerit.  Before  alluding  specially,  however, 
to  the  contents  of  the  chapter,  let  me  remark  that  I  can 
easily  understand  how  the  purest  and  loftiest  taste  should  be 
offended  by  reading  constantly  of  the  slaughter  of  lambs,  and 
bullocks,  and  goats,  the  pouring  out  of  their  blood  around  the 
altar,  and  sprinkling  the  horns  or  the  tips  of  the  golden  altar 
of  incense  w^ith  it ;  and  therefore  it  has  been  said  by  some 
of  a  sceptical  turn  of  mind,  that  all  this  seems  unworthy  of 
God,  as  it  must  be  distasteful  to  man.  Now  I  would  wish 
you  to  recollect  that  the  very  parties  who  object  to  this  are 
admirers  of  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans  in  the  meridian 
greatness  of  their  testhetic  attainments.  These  parties  should 
recollect  that  the  most  polished  nations  of  heathendom  had 
the  same  rites,  the  same  sacrifices,  but  with  barbarous  con- 
comitants that  were  utterly  unknown  to  or  separate  from 
the  observances  of  the  Jews.  Therefore,  if  Jewish  sacrifices 
be  so  offensive  to  a  lofty  aesthetic  taste,  as  modern  sceptics 
allege,  they  should  recollect  that  these  sacrifices  were  not 

3*  (29) 


30  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

peculi«ar  to  the  Jews,  but  were  observed  by  the  Greeks  and 
Romans  also,  only  in  the  latter  they  were  accompanied  with 
forms  and  ceremonies  still  more  offensive  to  a  cultivated 
taste,  and  not  only  offensive  to  the  taste,  but  —  what  is  sad 
enough  —  without  the  mighty  moral  meaning  that  the  sacri- 
fices of  the  Jews  had. 

I  said  before,  I  think,  that  God's  great  design  in  institut- 
ing these  rules  was  just  to  write  it  on  the  heart  of  nations, 
line  upon  line,  precept  upon  precept,  that  there  was  some- 
thing wrong  between  man  and  God ;  to  engrave  it  next,  not 
less  legibly  and  deeply,  that  there  could  be  no  pardon  for 
what  man  had  done,  and  no  satisfaction  to  the  justice,  holi- 
ness, and  truth  of  God,  except  by  some  great  expiatory  sac- 
rifice, of  which  these  were  but  dim  foreshadows  and  prefig- 
urations.  And  you  know  quite  well  how  unteachable  human 
nature  is  where  it  does  not  want  to  be  taught ;  and  how  nec- 
essary it  is  to  reiterate  and  repeat  the  great  and  important 
truths  which  you  desire  to  be  influential  upon  mankind. 
Such  is  the  effect  of  repetition  of  a  thing  that  a  very  cele- 
brated demagogue  who  has  passed  away,  said,  "  Tell  a  lie 
every  day,  and  it  will  ultimately  be  believed  to  be  truth." 
I  do  not  accept  his  sentiment ;  I  merely  quote  it  to  show 
how  strongly  he  felt  the  value  of  repetition.  And  when 
that  most  excellent  and  truly  noble  spirit,  Dr.  Chalmers,  was 
asked,  to  what  did  he  attribute  the  success  of  his  preaching  r 
he  is  reported  to  have  said,  "  Under  God,  to  one  thing  ;  rep- 
etition, repetition,  repetition."  In  other  words,  it  is  the 
repetition  of  a  thought  that  causes  it  ultimately  to  become 
rooted  in  the  hearts  and  feelings  of  those  that  hear  it.  Hence 
one  great  use  of  coming  to  the  house  of  God  is  not  to  get 
new  thoughts,  but  to  get  reiterated  and  restruck  the  old 
ones ;  and  the  effect,  under  God,  of  constant  attendance  on 
the  sanctuary  is,  not  that  you  learn  something  that  you 
probably  think  you  did  not  know  before  —  though  that  may 
be  true  —  but  that  you  hear  old  things  put  in  new  lights,  set 


LEVITICUS    IV.  81 

at  new  an.2:lc-5 ;  and  the  trutlis  of  God's  Word,  like  precious 
gems,  will  bear  to  be  looked  at,  and  turned  over,  and  ana- 
lyzed, and  microscopically  examined  ;  and  instead  of  weary- 
ing, you  will  only  be  refreshed,  and  instead  of  going  away 
dissatisfied  and  displeased,  you  will  be  thankful  that  you 
have  heard  blessed  truths,  and  find  that  you  now  feel  them 
more  perfectly  than  you  ever  felt  them  before.  This,  there- 
fore, will  explain  —  and  your  own  experience  will  confirm 
it  —  what  seems  at  first  sight  a  thing  unnecessary,  —  that 
God  should  thus  reiterate  and  repeat,  line  upon  line  and  pre- 
cept upon  precept. 

The  sins  that  are  alluded  to  in  this  chapter  are,  first,  sins 
committed  by  the  high-priest ;  secondly,  sins  committed  by 
the  congregation ;  thirdly,  sins  committed  by  the  ruler  of 
the  people,  the  magistrate,  the  judge,  the  king ;  and,  lastly, 
sins  committed  by  the  common  people.  And  then  the  sins 
that  are  thus  classified  are,  you  will  observe,  what  are  called 
"  sins  of  ignorance."  I  know  nothing  that  gives  a  higher 
view  of  the  holiness  of  God  than  this  —  that  not  only  sins 
that  we  culpably  and  deliberately  commit  are  guilt  in  his 
sight ;  but  that  we  commit  sins  in  our  ignorance,  which  are 
sins,  though  we  do  not  suppose  them  to  be  so.  God's  law  is 
a  fixture,  and  is  not  dependent  upon  our  estimate.  There  is 
sin  committed  in  the  dark  as  well  as  noonday.  Sin  com- 
mitted by  those  who  are  not  acquainted  with  it  as  such,  as 
well  as  when  committed,  though  it  may  be  aggravated  in 
the  last  case,  by  those  who  are  acquainted  with  it,  is  still 
sin.  No  ignorance  on  our  part  exculpates.  I  do  not  believe 
that  one's  ignorance  of  a  sin  dilutes  or  extenuates  that  sin. 
I  know  that  the  text  has  often  been  quoted,  which  I  think  I 
ex})lained  before,  in  1  Timothy  i.  12,  13,  where  the  Apostle 
Paul  says,  "  I  thank  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord,  who  hath  ena- 
bled me,  for  that  he  counted  me  faithful,  putting  me  with 
the  ministry ;  who  was  before  a  blasphemer,  and  a  persecu- 
tor, and  injurious :  but  I  obtained  mercy,  because  I  did  it 


32  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

ignorantly  in  unbelief."  Now  it  has  been  said  that  sins 
committed  in  ignorance  are  no  sins  at  all;  and  that  the 
ignorance  of  a  duty  is  atonement  for  omitting  that  duty,  or 
expiatory  of  the  sin.  My  answer  is,  ignorance  may  exten- 
uate our  guilt,  but  it  does  not  in  the  least  modify  the  sin,  or 
make  an  atonement  for  it.  But  the  passage  here,  I  think, 
is  very  much  misread.  Those  of  you  who  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  read  Greek  Avriters  in  your  youth  will  recollect, 
that  very  frequently  an  exclamation  is  introduced  in  a  nar- 
rative in  the  middle  of  a  sentence  —  something  like  a  paren- 
thesis in  our  language,  and  not  connected  with  the  continu- 
ous current  of  the  chapter  or  the  narrative.  The  expression 
here,  "  I  obtained  mercy,"  is  really  parenthetical.  And  you 
will  understand  it  if  I  read  it  thus :  —  "  Which  was  before  a 
blasphemer,  and  a  persecutor,  and  injurious,  because  I  did 
it  ignorantly  in  unbelief."  But  in  the  midst  of  his  narrative 
he  exclaims,  "  But  I  obtained  mercy,"  —  that  is  parentheti- 
cal :  it  is  an  exclamation  in  the  middle  of  the  sentence,  as 
if  his  sense  of  the  mercy  he  had  received  was  so  strong 
that  he  could  not  help  stopping  short  and  exclaiming,  "  But 
I  obtained  mercy."  Leave  out  the  clause,  "  But  I  obtained 
mercy,"  and  then  the  passage  reads  thus  :  —  "  Which  was 
before  a  blasphemer,  and  a  persecutor,  and  injurious,  be- 
cause I  did  it  ignorantly  in  unbelief."  His  persecutions, 
and  his  blasphemy,  were  the  result  of  his  ignorance  and 
unbelief.  It  is  not  stated  that  he  obtained  mercy  because 
of  his  ignorance ;  but  that  he  committed  sin  because  he  was 
ignorant.  The  exclamation,  "  I  obtained  mercy,"  is  paren- 
thetical, and  denotes  what  the  paramount  thought  in  the 
apostle's  mind  was  —  "But,"  in  the  midst  of  all  this,  "I 
obtained  mercy." 

Now,  the  sins  recorded  in  this  chaiDter  are  those  commit- 
ted in  ignorance ;  and  for  such  sins  thus  committed  in 
ignorance  there  is  a  special  provision  made  throughout  the 
chapter.     Each  offering  is  described  minutely  and  in  detail, 


LEVITICUS    IV.  33 

but  to  the  details  of  the  description  I  need  not  turn  your 
attention.  First,  he  says  that  the  blood  shall  be  sprinkled 
seven  times.  Seven  is  used  in  Scripture  as  the  great  sym- 
bol of  perfection.  Thus  the  seven  churches  denote  the  one 
catholic  or  universal  church ;  thus  the  seven  spirits  denote 
the  one  Holy  Spirit  —  the  perfect  sanctifier  and  comforter 
of  all  the  people  of  God.  And  to  do  a  thing  seven  times 
was  equivalent  to  doing  it  perfectly  and  completely.  Hence, 
"  if  thy  brother  sin  against  thee  seven  times "  —  that  is, 
commit  a  great  sin  against  you,  you  are  to  forgive  him. 

In  the  next  place,  the  victim  was  to  be  taken  and  sacri- 
ficed without  the  gate.  Now,  to  show  how  completely  this 
is  typical  of  our  Lord's  death,  we  read  in  the  Hebrews  xiii., 
"  Wherefore  Jesus  also,  that  he  might  sanctify  the  people 
with  his  own  blood,  suffered  without  the  gate," — the  very 
language  of  this  chapter  —  "  Let  us  go  forth  therefore  unto 
him  without  the  camp,  bearing  his  reproach.  For  here  have 
we  no  continuing  city,  but  we  ^eek  one  to  come." 

And,  in  the  next  place,  you  will  notice  that  throughout 
the  whole  of  this  chapter  the  greater  the  official  personage 
that  sinned,  the  greater  the  sacrifice  that  was  required  for 
the  expiation  of  that  sin.  If  you  read  the  chapter  at  your 
leisure  you  will  find  that  a  more  precious  sacrifice  was  re- 
quired when  the  high-priest  or  the  ruler  sinned  than  when 
one  of  the  common  people  or  the  congregation  sinned.  And 
this  teaches  us  that,  while  sin  is  essentially  the  same  in  all, 
it  is  aggravated  in  its  character  as  it  is  far  more  extensive 
in  its  pernicious  influences  when  it  is  perpetrated  by  persons 
in  high  places  in  the  church,  or  in  the  high  places  of  the 
state ;  and  just  because  sin  committed  in  lofty  places  spreads 
further,  deals  its  havoc  wider,  we  ought  the  more  earnestly 
to  pray  that  those  that  God  has  placed  over  us  in  the  chief 
places  of  the  land,  or  of  the  Church  of  Christ,  may  be  so 
guided  and  governed  by  His  Holy  Spirit  that  they  shall  let 
their  light  shine  before  them,  that  those  that  are  beneath 


o4  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

seeing  their  good  works  may  glorify  their  Father  who  is  in 
heaven. 

You  will  notice  next,  that  the  blood  of  the  victim  was  to 
be  sprinkled  on  the  vail  that  separated  the  holy  place  from 
the  rest  of  the  sanctuary.  Now,  the  Apostle  Paul  alludes 
to  this  very  rite  in  Hebrews  x.  19,  where  he  says,  "  Having 
therefore,  brethren,  boldness  to  enter  into  the  holiest "  — 
that  is,  to  heaven  —  "  by  the  blood  of  Jesus,  by  a  new  and 
living  way,  which  he  hath  consecrated  for  us,  through  the 
vail,  that  is  to  say,  his  flesh."  Nothing  is  more  remarkable 
than  the  perfect  parallelism  between  Leviticus  —  the  Third 
Book  in  the  Pentateuch  —  and  the  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  to 
the  Hebrews.  The  one  is  the  key  to  the  other,  the  one  the 
solution  of  the  difficulties  of  the  other.  And  you  will  never 
understand  Christ's  sacrifice  in  all  its  glory,  its  fulness,  its 
applicability,  until  you  have  read  very  carefully  the  mi- 
nute —  it  may  be  in  some  respects  inexplicably  minute  — 
details  of  the  sacrifices  offered  up  year  by  year  by  the  chil- 
dren of  Levi.  The  one  is  meant  to  set  forth  in  all  its 
minute  details  the  other.  The  Jew  never  can  be  satisfied 
with  the  first  alone  —  the  Christian  will  not  understand 
fully  the  second  alone.  The  Old  and  New  Testaments,  like 
the  twin  lips  of  an  oracle,  speak  the  one  Christ,  proclaim 
the  one  truth,  and  cast  light  mutually  upon  each  other. 
Bush  remarks  on  the  Sin-oflTering :  — 

"  The  strongest  impression,  perhaps,  which  we  receive 
from  it  is  that  of  guilt  and  responsibility  attaching,  in  the 
sight  of  God,  to  sins  of  infirmity  and  ignorance ;  for  it  is  to 
such  that  it  mainly  has  respect.  We  are  prone  to  imagine 
that  an  offence  committed  unintentially  or  unawares,  cannot 
incur  the  charge  of  guilt.  Men  do  not  scruple  to  plead 
their  ignorance,  their  infirmities,  their  natural  and  habitual 
propensities,  in  excuse  for  their  misdeeds.  But  the  law  of 
God  determines  otherwise.  It  enjoins  an  onerous  cere- 
mony for  the  expiation  of  sins   unconsciously  committed. 


LEVITICUS    IV.  35 

The  sin,  it  is  true,  is  not  so  great  as  if  it  were  done  know- 
ingly, wilfully,  and  presumptuously ;  yet  still  it  is  sin,  and 
as  such  needs  an  atonement.  Without  the  shedding  of  blood 
there  was  no  remission.  At  the  same  time  we  are  not  to 
lose  sight  of  the  consolation  which  flows  through  this  typical 
ordinance  to  the  bosom  of  the  penitent  believer.  The  lan- 
guage of  the  apostle,  Hebrews  xiii.  11-13,  makes  it  evident 
that  the  Sin-oftering  pointed  directly  to  Christ,  through 
whose  efficacious  atonement  all  his  sins,  whether  of  greater 
or  less  aggravation,  are  cancelled  and  abolished.  It  is  those 
daily  infirmities,  those  sins  unconsented  to,  and  yet  commit- 
ted :  those  faults  too  covert  for  detection,  or  too  late  de- 
tected; it  is  they  that  constitute  his  daily  struggles,  and 
wage  within  him  an  unceasing  warfare.  And  when  he  has 
seen  the  sins  of  his  wilful  alienation  borne  away  by  the 
atoning  sacrifice,  these  cleaving  vestiges  of  a  corrupt  nature 
will  often  vex  him  with  painful  fears,  lest  there  should  still 
be  a  demand  of  wrath  against  him.  How  appropriate,  then, 
is  this  exhibition  of  a  continual  offering  for  our  continual 
need !  '  He  that  knew  no  sin  was  made  sin  (a  sin-oifering) 
for  us.'  Here  we  have  pardon ;  not  once,  to  cancel  the  past 
debt  and  begin  on  a  new  score ;  but  pardon  daily,  hourly 
renewed,  as  often  as  the  Sin-oflfering  is  pleaded  before  the 
Father,  is  brought  in  faith,  and  laid  upon  the  altar  before 
the  Lord.  We  do  nothing  well.  If  we  pray,  it  is  with 
cold  and  wandering  thoughts ;  if  we  hear,  it  is  with  dis- 
tracted and  forgetful  minds ;  we  are  continually  surprised, 
continually  overtaken,  continually  turned  aside  by  the  cur- 
rent of  temptation,  that  runs  so  strong  against  us,  when  per- 
haps we  cannot  convict  ourselves  of  one  indulged  deliberate 
sin.  Therefore  did  the  God  of  mercies  ordain  this  peculiar 
institution,  prefiguring  to  them  of  old  the  divine  oblation  to 
be  once  offered,  but  forever  efhcacioiis,  for  the  pardon  of 
this  and  every  kind  of  guilt." 

How  precious  must  that  Saviour  be  to  whom  so  many 


36  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

elaborate  institutions  unitedly  pointed !  How  perfect  must 
that  atonement  be  for  which  God  was  four  thousand  years 
making  preparation !  Let  us  thankfully  accept  it.  Let  us 
rejoice  in  it  all  the  day  long.  "  His  blood  cleanseth  from 
all  sin." 


CHAPTER   V. 

SIN-OFFERING  AND  TRESrASS-OFFERING  —  ADJURATION  —  IGNO- 
RANCE—  OFFERINGS  PROVIDED  FOR  THE  POOR  —  SACRIFICE  AND 
CONFESSION  —  BURDENSOMENESS  OF  JEWISH  RITES  —  IDEA  OF 
EXPIATION    INCULCATED. 

In  the  last  chapter  we  had  the  record  and  description  — 
or  rather  in  previous  chapters  —  of  what  was  called  the  sin- 
offering.  The  sin-offering  was  a  sacrifice,  or  an  atonement, 
made  by  the  priest  on  the  altar,  for  one  who  had  in  some 
shape  violated  the  known  and  express  law  of  God.  But 
the  trespass-offering  seems  to  relate  to  the  violation  of  ritual 
law,  and  the  public  worship  and  ordinances  of  the  Sanctuary, 
the  Tabernacle,  and  the  Temple  subsequently,  into  which 
any  Israelite,  through  indifference  or  ignorance,  might  possi- 
bly fall.  And  you  will  therefore  see,  that  almost  every  sin 
contemplated  in  this  chapter  has  more  relation  to  ceremo- 
nial than  to  moral  trespasses  against  God.  Especially, 
however,  does  it  relate,  in  one  or  two  instances,  to  the  viola- 
tion of  the  duties  that  we  owe  one  to  another.  The  first 
verse  opens  with  a  statement,  that  if  any  one,  or  "  a  soul 
sin,  and  heai'  the  voice  of  swearing,  and  is  a  witness, 
whether  he  hath  seen  or  known  of  it."  Our  translation 
suggests,  if  it  suggests  at  all,  a  very  obscure  and  imperfect 
meaning.  It  is  not,  "  If  a  soul  hear  a  person  swear,  and  do 
not  rebuke  the  swearer,  or  tell  of  the  swearer,"  which  seems 
to  be  suggested  by  our  version  ;  but,  If  a  person  summoned 
to  a  court  of  law,  under  the  ancient  Jewish  economy,  ad- 
jured by  the  ofliciating  judge  to  tell  the  truth,  should  not  so 

4  (37) 


38  SCIIIPTURE   READINGS. 

tell  the  trutli,  and  all  that  he  knew,  then  he  should  be 
guilty.  AV^e  have  an  illustration  of  this  verse  in  such  a 
passage  as  that  where  the  Iiigh-pricst  came  to  our  blessed 
Lord,  as  recorded  in  Matthew  xxvi.  63,  and  said,  "  I  adjure 
thee  by  the  living  God,  that  thou  tell  us  whether  thou  be 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God."  Now,  that  was  the  high-priest 
acting  upon  the  first  verse  of  this  very  chapter.  And  our 
Lord  then  heard  what  is  called  "  the  swearing "  in  this 
verse,  or  what  in  that  case  was  the  adjuration  of  the  high- 
priest  ;  and  as  you  notice,  so  obedient  was  the  true  Lamb, 
the  true  Saviour  to  all  the  requirements  of  the  ceremonial 
law,  that  though  he  had  been  dumb  when  asked  previously, 
yet  the  moment  that  the  high-priest  adjured  him,  that  mo- 
ment, in  obedience  to  the  first  verse  of  this  chapter,  our 
blessed  Lord  answered  the  question  addressed  to  him ;  as  if 
it  was  impossible  that  he  could  fail  in  the  observance  of  the 
least  jot  or  tittle  of  the  ceremonial  law,  any  more  than  in 
the  weightiest  requirement  of  God's  moral  law.  We  have, 
in  Proverbs  xxix.,  an  allusion  to  this  :  "  He  heareth  an 
adjuration,  and  telleth  not,"  —  that  is  laid  down  as  a  sin,  or, 
in  other  words,  the  violation  of  the  first  verse  of  the  chap- 
ter I  have  now  read. 

We  observe,  in  the  next  place,  that  a  person,  after  he  has 
done  so  —  if  guilty  of  this  sin  —  shall  bring  his  trespass- 
offering,  and  the  priest  shall  ofller  that  trespass-oifering  as  an 
atonement  or  a  sacrifice  for  him.  You  will  also  notice,  that 
though  he  may  not  have  known  it  at  the  time,  —  and  this  is 
assumed  throughout  the  whole  chapter,  —  if  the  party  did 
not  know,  at  the  time  that  he  committed  the  sin,  that  he 
really  did  so ;  if  ignorance  had  been  the  state  of  his  mind 
when  he  fell  into  the  violation  of  one  of  the  commands  of 
God  —  it  is  important  to  observe  —  it  does  not  therefore 
exculpate  him.  On  the  contrary,  at  the  close  of  the  chap- 
ter, we  are  told  expressly  that  his  ignorance,  wherein  he 
erred,  and  wist  it  not,  is  not  an  excuse  for  his  sin ;  but  there 


LEVITICUS    V.  39 

is  lying  at  his  door,  just  as  at  Cain's,  a  sin-offering,  wliich 
he  may  olFer  immediately  to  God.  Now  that  explains  a 
very  important  thing  in  our  case.  If  we  have  sinned,  even 
if  we  did  not  know  it,  it  was  not  less  sin  —  though  it  may 
palliate  it  that  we  did  not  know  it.  And  therefore  we  are 
not  to  plead  our  ignorance  as  an  atonement  for  the  past,  but 
we  are  to  have  recourse  to  that  which  is  freely  offered  to  us, 
the  only  Atonement  made  once  for  all  our  sins  upon  the 
cross ;  and  then  the  sin,  whether  committed  in  ignorance  or 
not,  shall  immediately  be  forgiven.  We  shall  see,  also,  that 
ignorance  does  not  exculpate  from  a  remark  made  in  the 
Acts  :  "  Had  they  known,  they  would  not  have  crucified  the 
Lord  of  Glory,"  —  indicating  that  many  of  the  Jews  en- 
gaged in  that  awful  transaction  were  ignorant  of  the  great 
sin  and  crime  the}'"  were  committing ;  but  yet  the  same  apos- 
tle adds,  not  with  innocent,  but  "  with  ivicked  hands  ye  took 
and  crucified  the  Lord  of  Glory ; "  thereby  showing  that 
there  was  guilt,  tliough  committed  in  ignorance.  And, 
therefore,  instead  of  persons  pleading,  as  an  excuse  for  their 
sins,  that  they  did  not  know,  the  true  way  is  to  apply  to  the 
Atonement,  of  which  they  now  do  know,  and  to  seek  for- 
giveness, not  because  they  were  ignorant,  but  because  Christ 
is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  for 
the  sins  of  all  that  believe. 

"We  have  in  this  chapter  another  very  beautiful  provision. 
In  order  to  shoAV  the  mercy,  the  tender  sympathy  and  com- 
passion of  God,  in  all  the  institutions  of  his  law,  you  will 
notice,  that  if  a  person  could  not  afford  the  sacrifice  required 
by  the  law  —  the  usual  one  and  the  proper  one  —  if  he  was 
so  poor  that  he  could  neither  purchase  nor  procure  it,  then 
there  was  provided  for  him  what  the  poorest  criminal  might 
have  —  a  little  flour,  a  handful  of  flour,  which  he  might  take 
to  the  priest  to  offer  it  for  him.  You  will  thus  perceive, 
running  through  all  God's  AYord,  there  is  no  flinching  from 
the  moral  demands  of  tlie  law,  there  is  no  diluting  of  the 


40  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

law ;  but  there  is  nmple  provision  that  no  man  shall  have 
an  excuse  or  an  apology  for  not  being  interested  in  the 
Atonement  in  which  that  law  was  magnified,  and  by  which 
the  sinner  may  be  forgiven.  The  law  remains  unchanged 
in  all  its  infinite  exactions ;  but  there  is  every  possible  pro- 
vision that  no  one  shall  be  able  to  plead  ignorance,  or  pov- 
erty, or  meanness,  or  any  other  thing,  as  an  excuse  for  want 
of  sacrifice  in  his  case  for  infringing  the  law,  or  as  an  apol- 
ogy for  not  receiving  the  forgiveness  which  is  extended  to 
them  that  God  accepts  through  an  atonement. 

You  will  also  notice  throughout  this  chapter,  that  there  is 
constantly  accompanying  the  sacrifice,  confession  of  sin. 
The  priest  shall  offer  it ;  the  person  that  sinned  shall  lay  his 
hand  upon  the  sin-offering,  and  confess  Tiis  sins.  Now  when- 
ever confession  (and  this  is  worth  recollecting)  was  men- 
tioned by  the  Jew,  it  always  called  up  in  his  mind  the  idea 
of  a  sacrifice  at  hand.  He  could  not  conceive  confession 
without  a  victim  or  a  sacrifice  along  with  it.  And  therefore, 
when  John  the  Baptist  came,  preaching  to  the  Jews  repent- 
ance, and  men  came  to  him  confessing  their  sins,  that  was 
the  proof  to  every  Jew  that  the  Great  Sacrifice  for  sin  was 
just  at  hand.  Confession,  in  the  mind  of  a  Jew,  always 
called  up  what  was  its  companion  in  his  economy  —  a  sacri- 
fice and  an  atonement  for  the  sins  that  were  confessed.  And 
therefore  we  say,  that  "  if  we  confess  our  sins,  God  is  faith- 
ful and  just"  —  but  the  idea  of  an  atonement  is  there  too  — 
"  through  Christ  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us 
from  all  unrighteousness." 

Let  me  again  remind  you,  in  the  last  place  upon  this  chap- 
ter, that  all  these  institutions  were  burdensome,  to  lead  the 
Jew  to  long  for  the  only  possible  deliverance,  —  the  advent 
of  the  end  of  them,  Christ  the  Sacrifice. 

Secondly,  they  were  atoning :  the  slaughter  and  sacrifice 
of  doves,  and  pigeons,  and  lambs,  and  rams,  was  meant  to 
rivet  in  the  Jew's  mind  the  great  truth,  that  without  shed- 


LEVITICUS    V.  41 

ding  of  blood  —  that  is,  without  a  sacrifice  —  there  could  not 
be  any  remission  of  sins ;  and  through  these  dim  lenses, 
these  imperfect  telescopes,  to  see  the  end  of  them  —  the 
Lamb  of  God  to  be  a  propitiation,  needing  not  to  be  re- 
peated, but  made  once  for  all,  for  the  sins  of  all  that  believe. 

"  On  the  general  subject  of  the  sin  and  trespass-offerings 
we  may  remark,  that  while  the  purpose  and  design  of  these 
various  ceremonies  have  been  disclosed  so  far  as  they  can 
convey  moral  and  spiritual  knowledge  to  our  minds,  there  is 
doubtless  much  in  the  external  forms  that  must  be  referred 
to  the  sovereign  will  of  God.  No  other  satisfactory  reason 
can  be  assigned  for  the  requirement  in  certain  cases  of  one 
of  these  species  of  offerings  rather  than  another,  than  that  it 
was  the  divine  pleasure  so  to  have  it.  In  the  ordinances 
before  us  it  is  clear,  that  the  wilful  sins  for  which  a  ram  was 
the  largest  offering  required,  were  greater  than  those  infirmi- 
ties for  which  a  bullock  was  demanded.  If  the  atonement 
had  really  lain  in  the  type,  this  would  have  borne  almost  an 
appearance  of  injustice.  But  as  it  was  no  doubt  intended  by 
every  kind  of  expiation  to  fix  the  attention  upon  the  Great 
Atonement  thereafter  to  be  made  for  all  sin,  the  intrinsic 
value  of  the  particular  offering  was  a  matter  of  compara- 
tively little  importance.  Indeed  it  is  very  conceivable,  as  we 
have  already  remarked,  that  a  sacrifice  of  less  value  may 
have  been  ordained  for  sins  of  greater  enormity,  with  the 
express  purpose  of  conveying  the  intimation  that  the  atoning 
virtue  was  not  in  the  sacrifice,  but  in  the  better  blood  which 
was  to  be  shed  at  a  future  day  on  Calvary.  Compared  with 
this,  every  typical  prefiguration,  even  the  most  costly  that 
could  be  devised,  fell  so  infinitely  short  in  value,  that  it  might 
have  been  a  special  aim  of  Divine  wisdom  to  ordain  a  less, 
in  order  the  more  forcibly  to  impress  upon  the  mind  the  in- 
trinsic efficacy  of  a  greater. 

"  But  while  it  was  not  especially  important  for  the  wor- 
shipper to  know  why  one  animal  was  chosen  to  expiate  one 

4* 


42  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

sin,  and  anotlier  another,  it  loas  important  for  him  to  know 
that  for  every  particular  sin  there  was  a  remedy  provided ; 
so  that  no  man  need  incur  the  Divine  wrath,  eitlier  by  rea- 
son of  his  most  secret  faults  or  his  most  flagrant  violations  of 
the  law.  This  is  the  very  essence  of  gospel  truth.  No  sin, 
not  even  the  smallest  or  most  unintentional,  could  be  forgiven 
without  a  sacrifice.  But  no  man  need  await  the  judicial 
punishment.  As  soon  as  he  knew  his  fault,  or  susj^ected  it, 
he  had  his  remedy.  He  knew  what  he  was  to  do.  If  he 
did  it  not,  the  condemnation  that  ensued  was  self-procured. 
It  was  not  the  fault  of  the  law,  nor  the  fault  of  the  judge,  nor 
the  fault  even  of  his  own  natural  weakness  or  infirmity,  if 
the  evil  he  had  committed  was  not  forgiven  him.  This  is 
the  gospel.  Whatever  men  may  think  of  their  natural  con- 
dition as  an  extenuation  of  their  sins ;  however  they  may 
venture  to  impugn  the  justice  that  assures  their  punishment ; 
this  at  least  cannot  be  gainsayed  —  the  remedy  is  i3rovided  ; 
the  atonement  is  made  known ;  the  mode  of  makin£r  it 
personally  available  is  clearly  stated;  it  is  efficacious  for 
every  sin ;  it  is  within  the  reach  of  every  sinner.  Christ  by 
his  one  oblation  has  made  satisfaction  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world.  If  any  man  chooses  to  abide  the  consequences 
of  his  transgressions,  rather  than  seek  forgiveness  in  the  way 
prescribed,  the  condemnation  is  his  own  deliberate  choice." 
Thus,  in  this,  as  in  the  previous  chapter,  Christ  is  all  and 
in  all.  All  that  was  peculiar  to  Levi  was  meant  either  to 
reveal  Christ,  or  to  draw  to  Christ,  or  to  drive  to  Christ. 


CHAPTER    VI. 

SOCIAL  SINS — INJURY  TO  A  NEIGHBOR   IS  SIN  AGAINST  GOD — COM- 
MERCIAL  DUTIES  —  FORGIVENESS — CONSECRATION    OF    PRIESTS 

THE    CEASELESS  BURNING  —  INDOLENCE  AND   ACTIVITY  —  THE 

DAILY  SACRIFICE — HEATHEN  TRADITIONS  —  PRIESTS' OFFERINGS 
AND  people's  OFFERINGS  —  THEIR  DIFFERENCE. 

Theke  are  two  great  and  obvious  divisions  in  the  chapter 
I  have  read.  There  is  the  first  part  of  it,  relating  to  social 
transgressions,  especially  in  commercial  and  mercantile  life  ; 
and  there  is  the  last  and  the  chief  part  of  the  chapter,  which 
relates  to  the  appointment  of  the  high-priest,  Aaron  being 
the  first ;  his  sons,  or  succeeding  priests  having  his  succes- 
sion, continuing  to  minister  according  to  the  law  of  the  ap- 
pointment of  Aaron,  their  father  and  their  founder. 

The  first  and  the  shortest  part  of  the  chapter  relates  to 
social  injustice :  and  I  can  conceive  no  law  more  beautiful, 
more  impartial,  more  fitted  to  do  the  highest  good,  than  the 
very  first  requirement  with  which  this  chapter  begins : 
"  If  a  soul  sin,  and  commit  a  trespass  against  the  Lord." 
But  mark  what  constitutes  a  trespass  against  the  Lord.  It 
consists  in  "  lying  to  his  neighbor,"  or  in  that  which  was  deliv- 
ered to  him  to  keep,  or  in  fellowship,  or  in  taking  any  thing 
away  from  his  neighbor  by  violence.  Now,  in  doing  so,  he 
commits  a  trespass  against  the  Lord:  the  injury  is  done 
against  his  neighbor,  but  in  its  rebound  it  is  sin  against  God. 
Every  deed  of  injustice,  whether  it  break  the  last  six  com- 
mandments or  the  first  four,  is  sin  against  God  —  if  it  be  one 
of  the  last  six  commandments  of  the  Law,  it  has  in  it  two  as- 

(43) 


44  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

pects :  one  aspect  towards  man,  or  injury  done  to  man,  — 
a  neighbor ;  and  its  aspect  towards  God,  or  sin  committed 
against  him.  We  never  sin  against  each  other  —  we  do  in- 
jury to  each  other  —  but  when  we  do  so,  we  sin  always 
against  God.  And  hence  the  distinction  is  so  important  — 
especially  in  these  days  when  errors  arc  abroad  —  that  the 
person  against  whom  the  thing  is  done  can  forgive  in  the 
thing  which  relates  to  him :  if  I  steal,  or  if  I  injure  or  wound 
the  neighbor,  he  froM  w^hom  I  plunder  can  forgive  me  the 
injury,  because  he  is  injured  and  the  owner;  but  the  sin 
that  underlies  the  injury,  reaching  to  God,  God  alone  can 
forgive.  And,  therefore,  to  talk  about  a  priest,  whom  I  have 
never  injured,  and  against  whom  I  cannot  sin  —  for  he  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  sin  —  forgiving  me  or  absolving  me, 
is  to  say,  what  is  most  untrue,  unscriptural,  and  absurd. 
Sin  is  committed  against  God  only,  and  God  only,  directly 
and  personally,  can  forgive  it ;  the  injury  that  accompanies 
the  sin  committed  against  my  neighbor  he  can  forgive.  If 
I  had  injured  a  priest,  then  I  would  go  to  the  priest,  and  ask 
his  forgiveness ;  but  not  the  forgiveness  of  the  sin  —  he  has 
no  business  with  that ;  but  only  the  forgiveness  of  the  injury 
I  have  done,  and  no  more.  And  if  I  have  injured  a  neigh- 
bor, I  ask  that  neighbor  to  forgive  me  ;  and  if  he  be  a  Ma- 
hometan or  a  Moslem,  I  ask  him  to  forgive  me  the  injury 
that  I  have  committed  against  him,  and  which  he  can  and 
ought  to  forgive  me  ;  but  the  sin  that  underlies  it  I  confess 
to  no  man ;  it  is  committed  against  God,  and  therefore,  like 
David,  I  will  say,  "  Against  thee,  thee  only,  have  I  sinned, 
and  done  this  evil  in  thy  sight." 

We  see  in  this  prescription  how  strikingly  the  sin  against 
God  is  interwoven  with,  and  inseparable  from,  an  injury 
against  a  brother.  See,  too,  how  very  comprehensive  the 
law  is  :  —  "  shall  sin  in  that  which  was  delivered  him  to  keep." 
Are  you  made  a  trustee  ?  —  is  property  depasited  with  you  ? 
'— •  are  you  a  banker  ?  —  has  some  client  left  his  money  in 


LEVITICUS    VI.  45 

your  hands?  Then  it  is  your  duty  to  be  fiiitliful ;  it  is  your 
duty  to  remember  that  the  least  breach  of  that  trust  is  injury 
against  your  neiglibor,  and  sin  against  your  God.  "  Or  in 
fellowship"  —  that  is  as  we  call  it  in  modern  days,  "in  part- 
nership." Are  you  a  partner  in  a  house  of  business  ?  You 
are  bound  to  look  to  your  copartner's  interests  as  if  they  were 
your  own ;  and  your  copartner  is  bound  to  look  to  your  in- 
terests just  as  if  they  were  his.  "  Or  in  a  thing  taken  away 
by  violence,  or  hath  deceived  his  neighbor,"  such  a  one  com- 
mits sin.  "Or  hath  found  that  which  was  lost,  and  lieth 
concerning  it,  and  sweareth  fiilsely."  Among  the  Romans, 
it  was  alwaj's  regarded  as  theft  to  appropriate  any  thing  you 
found  upon  the  streets,  whether  you  could  find  the  owner  of 
it  or  not  :  and  this  law  here  says  —  from  which  that  was 
evidently  a  reflection  —  that  if  you  find  any  thing  of  which 
you  cannot  find  the  owner,  or  if  you  find  any  thing,  and 
know  the  owner,  and  either  conceal  it,  or  deny  it  or  swear 
falsely  concerning  it,  all  that  is  sin  against  God.  "  Then  it 
shall  be,  because  he  hath  sinned,  and  is  guilty,  that  he  shall 
restore  that  which  he  took  violently  away,  or  the  thing  which 
he  hath  deceitfully  gotten,  or  that  which  was  delivered  him 
to  keep,  or  the  lost  thing  which  he  found,  or  all  that  about 
which  he  hath  sworn  falsely :  he  shall  even  restore  it  in  the 
principal," — that  is,  the  sum  itself — "and  shall  add"  — 
not  as  an  atonement,  but  as  what  may  be  fairly  due  —  "  the 
fifth  part  more  thereto,  and  give  it  unto  him  to  whom  it  ap- 
j^crtaineth."  You  recollect  the  language  of  Zaccheus  was  evi- 
dently founded  upon  that :  —  "  The  half  of  my  goods  I  give 
to  the  poor ;  and  if  I  have  taken  any  thing  from  any  man 
by  false  accusation,  I  restore  him  fourfold,"  —  which  showed 
the  warmth  and  fulness  of  his  convictions,  because  he  was 
only  bound  to  return  a  fifth  of  the  capital  or  principal  which 
he  had  taken  away. 

And  then,  not  only  was  he  to  do  so,  but  he  w^as  also  to  do 
it  at  the  time  of  his  confession  and  his  trespass-offering  made 


46  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

by  the  priest.  The  sin  was  forgiven  through  the  trespass- 
offering  as  a  type  of  Christ's  atonement ;  the  injury  against 
the  brother  was  rectified  by  returning  the  principal,  and  a 
fifth  of  the  principal  added  to  it,  and  receiving  from  that 
brother  he  had  injured  his  forgiveness.  "  And  the  priest 
shall  make  an  atonement  for  him  before  the  Lord ;  and  it 
shall  be  forgiven  him."  The  words  on  which  I  addressed 
you  the  other  Sunday  are  just  the  echo  of  this  :  —  "If  any 
man  sin  we  have  an  Advocate  with  the  Father ;  and  he  is 
the  propitiation  for  our  sins."  If  any  man  have  sinned  in 
any  of  these  respects,  and  have  done  something  which  it  is 
in  his  power  —  and  this  is  an  accompaniment  of  true  repent- 
ance, not  a  ground  of  pardon  —  to  reinstate,  or  restore,  or 
repair,  if  practicable,  such  a  one  need  not  doubt  that  he  has 
forgiveness  in  Christ  for  any  or  for  all  of  those  transgres- 
sions thus  distinctly  laid  down  in  this  chapter. 

The  next  part  of  the  chapter  describes  that  which  relates 
to  the  priests  and  to  their  offerings.  First  of  all,  there  is 
the  burnt-offering,  as  it  is  called.  This  burnt-offering,  by 
fire  kept  constantly  burning  upon  the  altar,  —  "  the  fire  shall 
ever  be  burning  upon  the  altar ;  it  shall  never  go  out,"  — 
that  fire  on  the  altar  was  lighted  originally  from  heaven ;  it 
was  lighted,  it  is  supposed,  from  the  bright  glory  that  w^as  in 
the  cloud,  and  ultimately  dwelt  in  the  Tabernacle  between 
the  cherubim ;  but  while  lighted  from  heaven  it  was  kept 
burning  by  human  appliances.  God  never  dispenses  with 
means  ;  he  gives  grace,  and  expects  us  to  use  means.  So 
that  text  that  many  pervert,  "My  grace  is  sufficient  for 
you,"  some  people  practically  read  as  if  it  were,  "  My  grace 
is  a  suhstitiite  for  you."  Now  it  is  not  so  ;  it  is  sufiicient  for 
you,  but  it  never  will  be  a  substitute  for  you.  God  does  not 
canonize  indolence.  He  lights  the  spark  that  is  in  the  heart 
from  heaven,  and  he  expects  that,  by  prayer,  by  reading,  by 
thought,  you  will  keep  it  constantly  burning. 

And  then  you  will  notice  that,  by  the  fire  on  the  altar, 


LEVITICUS    VI.  47 

which  was  thus  liglited  orij2;inally  from  heaven,  and  kept 
continually  burning,  there  was  offered  what  was  called  the 
morning  and  evening  sacrifice ;  the  morning  sacrifice,  which 
was  offered  up  just  at  sunrise,  was  a  lamb  ;  and  the  evening 
sacrifice,  a  little  before  sunset,  was  also  a  lamb  :  and  that 
was  called  the  daily  offering  —  the  burnt-offering.  John 
evidently  alluded  to  that  —  as  I  think  I  have  remarked  be- 
fore —  when  he  saw  at  evening  the  priests  carrying  the 
lamb  to  the  Temple  to  be  slain,  as  the  evening  offering,  and 
said,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the  sins 
of  the  world  ; "  he  turned  their  attention  from  the  literal 
prefigurative  lamb  that  they  were  carrying  to  the  literal 
altar,  and  directed  it  to  the  true  Lamb,  the  antitype,  the  end 
of  it  —  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  taketh  away  the  sins  of 
the  world. 

You  can  see  in  this  book,  too,  the  origin  of  those  dis- 
torted superstitions  that  still  prevail.  It  is  said  that  some 
one  calculated  the  height  of  the  largest  Pyramid  by  its 
shadow,  as  any  one  acquainted  with  the  relation  of  the 
sides  of  a  triangle  can  do.  We  can  calculate  the  antiquity, 
depth,  and  reality,  of  the  truths  in  this  Book,  by  those  dark 
and  deeply  distorted  shadows  projected  from  it  athwart  the 
wide  world.  I  think  one  of  the  strongest  proofs  that  this 
Book  is  the  ancient  original,  is  the  distortion  that  Tradition 
has  made  of  its  every  truth ;  retaining  enough  of  the  orig- 
inal to  indicate  its  origin,  but  mixed  up  sufficiently  with 
human  error  to  show  the  frailty  of  the  hands  in  which  it  has 
been  carried  to  a  distance.  This  fire  which  was  kept  con- 
tinually burning,  was  the  origin  of  the  fire  that  was  wor- 
shipped by  the  Persian  Magi,  or  by  those  called  in  modern 
times  Parsees.  It  was  also  the  origin  of  what  was  called 
the  "  vestal  fire  "  in  Roman  heathendom,  where  were  the 
vestal  virgins ;  that  vestal  fire  being  said  to  have  originated 
from  heaven,  and  to  be  ke})t  continually  and  supernaturally 
burning.    The  Greek  word  for  Vesta,  is  Esta,  and  that  word 


48  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

among  the  Greeks  is  evidently  derived  from  the  Hebrew 
word  Esh,  which  means  "  lire ; "  thus  again  showing  that 
every  distorted  heathen  superstition  had  first  its  origin  in 
inspired  truth.  Now  these  and  similar  things  would  indi- 
cate what  an  influence  this  Book  has  exercised  upon  the 
world,  and  how  much  the  world  is  indebted  to  it  for  truth, 
whilst  to  itself  it  is  indebted  for  all  the  dark  distortions 
which  it  has  canonized. 

AVe  have  next,  the  rites  for  the  consecration  of  the  priest 
himself —  a  very  interesting  part  of  this  Book  —  where  the 
offerings  of  Aaron  and  his-  sons,  which  they  shall  offer,  are 
laid  down.  You  will  notice  one  distinction  here  very  re- 
markable. When  offerings  were  made  for  the  people,  the 
priests  ate  of  the  offerings :  "  They  which  minister  at  the 
altar,  live  by  the  altar ; "  but  when  an  offering  was  made  for 
the  priests,  the  priests  did  not  taste  it,  but  the  whole  of  it 
was  utterly  and  entirely  burned.  Now  this  evidently  shows 
that  the  priests,  when  they  ate  of  the  offerings  of  the  peo- 
ple, typically  for  the  sins  of  the  people,  it  was  meant  to 
show  that  the  priest  took  upon  him  the  people's  sins,  and 
made  offering  for  them,  eating  being  incorporation:  "he 
made  offering,"  says  Paul,  "  first  for  his  own  sins,  then  for 
the  sins  of  the  people."  But  when  an  offering  was  made  for 
the  priest,  there  was  none  to  bear  his  sin,  and  therefore  the 
whole  thing  was  consumed ;  and  no  one  was  allowed,  in  any 
shape,  or  on  any  pretence,  to  partake  of  it :  "  it  shall  be 
wholly  burnt;,  it  is  a  statute  forever." 

The  rest  of  this  chapter  treats  of  the  offering  that  was  to, 
be  made  at  the  consecration  of  the  priest :  the  subsequent 
chapters  treat  of  the  office  and  the  functions  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  fulfil. 

The  whole  of  this  chapter  is  full  of  very  valuable  evan- 
gelical instruction,  and  highly  illustrative  of  the  gosj^el  of 
Christ.  "No  sentiment  should  be  more  deeply  engraven 
upon  our  hearts  than  that  a  sin  against  our  neighbor  is  a 


i 


LEVITICUS  vi.  40 

trespass  against  God.  So  David  says,  '  Against  tliec,  thee 
only  have  I  sinned,  and  done  this  evil  in  thy  sight,'  — 
though  his  offence  was  primarily  committed  against  Uriah. 

"'Or  have  found  that  vhicli  was  lost.'  The  judgment 
of  every  honest  mind  is,  that  he  who  finds  any  lost  property, 
and  makes  not  all  due  inquiry  to  ascertain  the  OAvner, 
should  in  equity  be  treated  as  a  thief. 

(5,  6.)  "  '  Shall  bring  his  trespass-ojffering  unto  the  Lord, 
a  ram  without  blemish.'  By  this  precept  we  are  again 
taught  that  disobedience  to  God  is  the  great  evil  even  of 
those  crimes  Avhicli  are  injurious  to  man,  and  that  repent- 
ance, and  even  restitution,  though  needful,  in  order  to  for- 
giveness, cannot  atone  for  sin. 

(12.)  "As  the  priest  was  to  renew  the  fire  upon  the  altar 
every  morning,  and  to  guard  with  the  utmost  care  against 
its  going  out,  so  our  first  work  with  the  return  of  the  morn- 
ing light,  should  be  that  the  fire  of  holy  love  be  kindled 
afresh  in  our  hearts,  and  through  the  day  our  study  should 
be  to  keep  it  constantly  burning. 

(22.)  " '  And  the  priest  shall  offer  it.'  The  benefits  of 
Christ's  atonement,  in  order  to  be  available,  must  be  "person- 
ally apprehended.  However  intrinsically  sufficient  for  the 
salvation  of  all  men,  none  will  be  the  better  for  it  who  do 
not  for  themselves  make  use  of  it.  The  offending  priest,  or 
ruler,  or  common  person,  must  himself  bring  his  sin-offer- 
ing, must  lay  his  own  hands  upon  its  head,  must  thus  show 
how  nearly  he  felt  himself  to  be  concerned  in  the  ceremon}^ ; 
and  every  sinner  now  must  individually  bring  this  sacrifice 
of  Christ,  in  faith,  as  the  atonement  for  his  own  sin.  He 
must  not  rest  in  the  mere  generality  that '  we  are  all  sin- 
ners,' and  '  Christ  died  for  all.'  He  must  feel  and  apply  all 
this  to  himself.  He  must  in  effect  say,  '  Lord,  I  am  indeed 
a  sinner ;  a  great  and  grievous  sinner  against  thee ;  but 
here  is  my  sin-offering ;  here  is  the  sacrifice  of  thine  own 
blessed  Son ;  here  is  the  atonement  of  thine  appointment ; 

5 


50  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

this  I  bring  to  tlice  with  my  soul's  approval,  and  my  heart's 
desire  that  it  may  be  accepted  by  thee,  and  put  away  all  my 
sin.'" 

Here,  too,  we  learn  how  truly  our  Lord  spake  when  he 
said,  "  Moses  wrote  of  me."  These  types  and  rites  are  the 
syllables  of  his  glorious  name.     They  met  at  Calvary. 


CHAPTER    VII. 

ALL   SCRIPTURE    INSTRUCTIVE  —  ADAM  THE  FIRST   PRIEST EUCIIA- 

RISTIC  OFFERINGS  —  VOTIVE  OFFERINGS — JACOb's  VOW. 

I  KNOW  it  seems  a  most  uninteresting  thing  to  read  these 
minute  prescriptions  respecting  the  slaughter  of  victims  and 
the  offering  of  sacrifices ;  but  if  God  saw  it  to  be  good  for 
his  glory,  and  good  for  us,  to  inspire  this  record,  I  do  not 
see  that  we  are  warranted  in  passing  by  it,  or  the  least  por- 
tion of  his  word  ;  or  in  supposing  that  either  it  is  in  every 
sense  inapplicable  to  us,  or  that  it  does  not,  or  should  not, 
belong  to  the  volume  in  which  it  is  contained.  We  are  cer- 
tain that  all  Scripture  is  given  by  inspiration  of  God ;  and 
while  each  piece  of  Scripture  is  not  equally  suitable  or 
equally  profitable  everywhere,  and  in  all  circumstances,  any 
more  than  one  medicine  is  suitable  in,  or  a  cure  for,  all  dis- 
eases, as  common  sense  shows,  we  yet  hold,  that  all  Scrip- 
ture is  given  by  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  somewhere,  or  in 
some  cases,  or  under  some  circumstances,  profitable,  that  the 
man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thoroughly  furnished  to  every 
good  work.  Besides,  I  do  not  see  why  the  naturalist,  for 
instance,  or  the  philosoplier,  should  on  these  grounds  quar- 
rel with  such  chapters  as  these.  We  do  not  find  that  the 
true  naturalist  despises  any  thing  that  he  finds  in  the  world 
of  nature,  in  the  vegetable  world,  in  the  mineral  kingdom, 
or  in  the  sky  above,  or  in  the  geological  strata  or  stony  page 
of  the  earth.  On  the  contrary,  he  tliinks  nothing  unclean, 
nothing  unfit   for   study  and   investigation.      It   has   been 

(51) 


52  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

actually  fonnd,  that  the  most  apparently  worthless  things 
are,  even  when  examined  and  thoroughly  understood,  really 
most  precious.  The  sea-weed,  long  thought  worthless,  has 
furnished  one  of  the  most  valuable  medicines ;  and  things 
that  have  long  been  trodden  upon,  and  considered  useless, 
have  turned  out,  when  properly  understood,  to  have  impor- 
tant and  valuable  purposes.  And  if  it  be  true  philosophy 
to  hold  nothing  that  God  has  made  unworthy  of  study,  it  is 
at  least  true  religion  to  hold  nothing  that  God  has  inspired 
unworthy  of  our  understanding  and  investigation. 

In  this  chapter  there  seem  to  be  some  parts  not  very  in- 
structive to  us,  and  yet  there  are  allusions  that  are  very 
suggestive  of  useful  thought.  For  instance,  in  the  eighth 
verse  it  is  stated,  that  when  the  priest  "  oifereth  any  man's 
burnt-offering,  even  the  priest  shall  have  to  himself  the  skin 
of  the  burnt-offering  which  he  hath  offered."  The  moment 
I  read  that,  my  thoughts  travelled  backwards  to  Adam  in 
Paradise.  You  recollect  that,  after  he  had  laid  aside  the 
fig-tree  leaves,  with  which  he  tried  to  clothe  his  body,  fool- 
ishly supposing  that  it  was  his  body  that  was  at  fault,  whilst 
it  was  the  inhabitant  within  that  had  set  all  wrong  outside — 
when  he  had  laid  aside  the  fig-tree  leaves,  God  clothed  him, 
it  is  said,  with  skins.  No  animal  food  was  then  eaten.  These 
skins  belonged  to  expiatory  victims.  What  does  that  teach 
us  ?  As  the  skin  of  the  sacrifice  was  the  property  of  the 
priest  that  offered  it,  v/e  gather  from  this  alone,  that  the  ani- 
mals that  were  slain  in  Paradise  were  slain  in  sacrifice ;  and 
that  the  skins  that  Adam  put  on  were  the  skins  of  victims, 
slaughtered  as  typical  of  the  great  atonement  that  should  be 
made  in  the  fulness  of  the  times ;  and  also  that  Adam,  after 
he  fell,  was  not  only  the  first  sinner  upon  earth,  but  also  the 
first  priest  upon  earth  that  offered  uj)  a  sacrifice  in  its  way 
expiatory  for  the  sins  of  mankind. 

We  find  in  the  twelfth  verse  another  class  of  offerings, 
that  are  very  interesting,  called  eucharistic,  or  thanksgiving 


LEVITICUS    VII.  53 

offerings  :  —  "If  he  offer  it  for  a  thanksgiving,  tlien  he  shall 
offer  with  the  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving  unleavened  cakes." 
Now,  this  eucharistic  peace-offering  is  an  offering  still 
obligatory  upon  us,  not  in  form,  for  that  would  be  Jewish, 
but  in  substance,  which  is  Christian  and  everlasting.  The 
Apostle  Paul  tells  us,  "  By  Christ,  the  altar,  let  us  offer  a 
sacrifice  of  thanksgiving  continually."  Now  such  language, 
used  by  the  apostle,  would  be  almost  inexplicable,  except 
we  look  at  it  in  the  light  of  Leviticus,  where  we  find  the 
eucharistic  or  thanksgiving  peace-offering  j^resented  on  the 
altar  by  the  priest,  in  favor  of  a  heart,  that  wished  to  unload 
itself  of  the  gratitude  it  felt  to  God  for  his  mercies.  The 
Apostle  Paul,  with  the '  Levitical  economy  before  him,  says 
so  beautifully,  "  By  him,  therefore  "  —  no  longer  by  the 
altar  in  the  tabernacle,  or  the  altar  in  the  temple,  but  by 
Christ,  the  true  altar  —  let  us  offer  not  the  eucharistic  offer- 
ing here  of  oil,  and  cake,  and  ram  without  blemish,  but 
"  the  sacrifice  of  thanksgiving  continually."  And  at  the  dawn 
of  one  year,  and  at  the  close  of  another,  just  ended,  let  us 
offer  what  Israel  did  —  we  doing  it  in  spirit,  they  doing  it 
in  the  letter  —  the  eucharistic  offering  of  thanksgiving  and 
praise  to  God.  Recollect  all  the  mercies  you  have  re- 
ceived, all  the  privileges  you  have  enjoyed,  all  the  blessings 
you  have  reaped  ;  and  that  man  must  have  a  very  insensible 
heart  who  does  not  feel  any,  and  a  very  blind  mind  who 
does  not  see  any,  and  a  very  unsanctified  heart  who  is  un- 
thankful for  those  he  does  see,  and  those  he  does  feel.  Let 
us,  at  the  commencement  of  one  year,  and  the  close  of 
another,  recognize  the  good  hand  of  God  in  all  the  bright 
and  blessed  enjoyments  of  the  past,  and  often  look  back, 
when  we  can  look  back  dispassionately  and  impartially,  to 
see  in  life's  most  shaded  and  obscure  places,  in  its  saddest 
and  most  sorrowful  windings,  the  wise,  the  merciful,  the 
gracious  leading  of  our  Father  who  is  in  heaven.  Just  read 
at  youf  leisure  the   107th   Psalm,  and  you  will  find  in  it 

5* 


54  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

strings  of  mercies,  always  closing  with  an  incentive  to 
eiicliaristic  offerings.  "Oh!  that  man  would  praise  the 
Lord  for  his  goodness,  and  for  his  wonderful  works  unto 
tlie  children  of  men."  Or  read  that  no  less  beautiful 
string  —  better  than  a  string  of  beads  —  a  string  of  bless- 
ings, called  the  103d  Psalm;  and  then,  after  each,  call  upon 
all  to  bless  the  Lord,  but,  secondly,  each  one  to  ask  his  own 
soul,  "  Bless  the  Lord,  O  my  soul." 

Let  me  notice  again  another  allusion  —  very  precious, 
very  instructive  —  and  that  is,  in  the  loth  verse,  where,  if 
any  of  the  sacrifice  remained,  it  was  to  be  eaten  the  same 
day  that  it  was  offered.  Now,  in  that  there  is  a  very  sea- 
sonable and  wise  provision,  because  if  it  had  not  been  eaten 
the  same  day  on  which  it  was  offered,  it  would  have  been 
kept  and  used  as  a  charm,  or  as  an  amulet,  and  as  a  sort  of 
guard  or  protection,  just  as  is  done  now  in  the  Church  of 
Rome,  where  the  consecrated  bread,  or  "  host,"  as  they  call 
it,  is  kept  in  a  pyx,  or  in  a  box,  preserved  as  in  a  safeguard, 
and  there  kept  within  walls,  under  lock  and  key,  lest  what 
they  believe  to  be  God  should  be  stolen  or  taken  away.  And 
I  think  that  is  a  very  Protestant  thought  in  one  of  the  ru- 
brics, if  I  mistake  not,  of  the  Church  of  England  Commun- 
ion Service,  that  at  the  close,  as  it  is  also  done  in  our  own 
church,  after  all  the  communicants  have  partaken,  if  there 
be  any  bread  and  wine  left,  it  is  not  to  be  burnt,  as  some 
foolish  and  conceited  and  ignorant  priests  in  the  West  say, 
nor  is  it  to  be  poured  down  a  place  specially  appointed  for 
that  purpose,  called  a  piscina,  under  special  form  and  cere- 
mony, but  the  poor  of  the  congregation  are  to  be  called  to- 
gether, and  they  are  decently  to  eat  the  bread  and  drink  the 
v/ine.  Now,  I  can  conceive  no  more  fatal  blow  to  transub- 
stantiation  than  that  law ;  and  it  is  impossible,  while  it 
exists,  that  transubstantiation  can  be  openly  preached.  It  is 
common  bread  and  common  wine,  when  all  have  communi- 
cated ;  and  it  always   should  be  eaten,  not  left  to  ^le  next 


LEVITICUS    VII.  55 

day,  whicli  would  be  opening  the  door  for  the  amulets,  the 
charms,  and  all  tlie  other  nonsense  which  has  been  grafted 
upon  Christianity  —  not  to  say  nonsense,  but  blasphemous 
heresy,  which  has  been  grafted  upon  Christianity  in  the 
Church  of  Rome. 

One  other  verse  I  allude  to,  and  I  have  done.  It  is  the 
sixteenth  verse,  where  it  says,  "  If  the  sacrifice  of  his  offer- 
ing be  a  vow,  or  a  voluntary  offering,  it  shall  be  eaten  the 
same  day  "  —  that  is  to  say,  there  were  not  only  eucharistic, 
or  thanksgiving  offerings,  which  the  people  of  God  were  to 
present  on  a  review  of  a  past  year,  or  a  past  month,  or  a 
good  harvest,  or  great  profits,  by  their  honest  and  industri- 
ous labors,  but  they  also  made  offerings  that  were  purely 
voluntary  and  votive.  Now  at  the  close  of  one  year,  we 
ought  not  only  to  thank  God  for  what  is  past ;  but,  if  it  be 
in  your  power,  in  this  cold  and  piercing  weather  there  will 
be  plenty  around  you  wiiose  silent  misery  will  plead  with 
the  greatest  eloquence,  to  whom  you  can,  each  in  his  own 
neighborhood,  give  a  gift-offering,  expressive  of  your  grati- 
tude. The  word  "  offering,"  translated  into  modern  lan- 
guage, would  be  a  "  Christmas-box "  given  to  the  poor. 
That  is  our  modern  phrase  for  an  ancient  law  in  the  Bible ; 
it  is  the  giving  something  of  our  plenty  to  those  that  are 
poor  and  needy,  as  expressions  of  our  good  feeling  to  them, 
and  of  our  thankfulness  to  God.  But  I  alluded  also  to  the 
votive  offerings  —  that  is  to  say,  that  during  the  year  that 
is  to  come,  you  will  perform  this,  or  that  you  will  do  that,  or 
that  you  will  give  up  tliat  little  luxury,  that  you  may  benefit 
others,  or  you  will  undertake  this  duty,  that  you  may  do 
good  to  those  that  are  around  you.  Every  man  may  see  in 
the  year  that  has  commenced  many  gaps,  and  openings,  and 
nooks,  and  niches,  that  his  liberality  may  fill ;  and  you  will 
find  that  you  will  never  be  less  happy  or  less  rich  by  deal- 
ing your  bread  to  the  hungry,  your  raiment  to  the  naked, 
and  hiding  not  yourselves  from  your  own  iiesh.    As  a  speci- 


56  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

men,  however,  of  a  votive  offering,  I  read  that  very  beauti- 
ful one  of  Jacob,  where  it  says,  "  And  Jacob  vowed  a  vow." 
Now  here  is  the  eucharistic  vow  :  '"  If  God  will  be  with  me, 
and  will  keep  me  in  this  way  that  I  go,  and  will  give  me 
bread  to  eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on,  so  that  I  come  again  to 
my  father's  house  in  peace,  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my  God ; 
and  this  stone,  which  I  have  set  for  a  pillar,  shall  be  God's 
house ;  and  of  all  that  thou  shalt  give  me,  I  will  surely  give 
the  tenth  unto  thee."  Now  that  is  a  votive  —  a  eucharistic 
votive  offering.  I  know  some  have  misapprehended  its 
meaning,  as  if  Jacob  had  said,  "  Well,  if  God  will  give  me 
so  much,  then  I  will  give  him  so  much  in  return."  But  that 
is  not  the  meaning  of  the  passage ;  it  is  literally,  "  Then  if 
this  be  true,  as  I  know  it  is,  —  if  that  God  will  be  my  God ; 
if  indeed  he  will  lead  me,  as  he  has  promised  to  lead  me,  in 
this  way  that  I  go ;  and  if  he  will  thus  give  me  bread  to 
eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on ;  if  he  will  be  so  good  a  God 
to  me,  —  then  the  least  that  I  can  do  is  to  express  my 
gratitude  to  him,  by  offering  a  continual  eucharistic  and 
votive  offering  to  Him  who  is  my  merciful  and  gracious 
deliverer." 

Thus  God  was  always  recognized  as  the  Giver  of  every 
good  and  perfect  gift,  and  man  is  no  less  urgently  educated 
to  express  his  dependence  and  gratitude  to  Him.  May  thy 
Holy  Spirit,  0  Lord,  add  to  these  other  gifts  and  graces  to 
us  a  grateful  heart ! 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

SACRED  PERSONS  —  AARON's  CONSECRATION  —  LEVITICUS  AND  EPIS- 
TLE TO  THE  HEBREWS  —  MOSES  CONCERNED  IN  THE  CONSECRA- 
TION   OF    AARON CONVOCATIONS — WASHING    WITH    WATER — • 

SANDALS TRUE    RELIGION    HAS    VARIABLE    RITES    AND    FIXED 

MORAL  AND  SPIRITUAL  TRUTHS. 

The  consecration  of  Aaron  was  altogether  a  most  im- 
pressive scene.  In  the  background  was  seen  Mount  Sinai, 
silent  and  shrouded,  as  if  it  had  never  burned  with  fire,  or 
echoed  along  its  gorges  a  solemn  decalogue :  around  were 
the  rich  pastures  of  its  slopes,  stretching  away  far  before 
their  desert  march.  In  the  holy  tabernacle,  raised  by  a  peo- 
ple's liberality,  w^as  Aaron  consecrated  the  first  high-priest ; 
and  clothed  with  robes  of  beauty,  and  of  glory,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  all  the  people.  In  former  chapters,  you  will  recol- 
lect we  have  had  very  minute  descriptions  of  the  consecra- 
tion of  sacred  things ;  in  this,  however,  and  in  some  that  fol- 
low, we  have  a  description  of  the  consecration  of  sacred  per- 
sons. This  chapter  begins  an  account  of  the  consecration  of 
Aaron  —  the  first  high-priest  in  the  ancient  Jewish  economy 
—  to  that  lofty  office,  which  lasted,  with  more  or  less  of  cor- 
ruption cleaving  to  it,  till  the  Jewish  high-priest,  the  shadow, 
was  merged  in  Christ,  the  universal  High-Priest,  who  liveth 
and  reigneth  a  priest  and  a  king  upon  his  throne  for  ever 
and  ever.  Now  the  reason*  why  these  chapters  are  so  im- 
portant is  just  this  :  you  never  can  understand  the  offices  of 
our  Blessed  Redeemer,  unless  you  will  read  and  study  them 

(57) 


58  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

in  the  light  of  Leviticus  ;  and  you  never  will  understand 
Leviticus,  its  moral  and  weighty  significance,  till  you  read  it 
in  the  light  of  Christ,  our  Great  High-Priest.     The  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  and  the  Book  of  Leviticus  are  the  lock  and 
the  key ;  the  one  opening  the  other,  and  each  casting  light, 
and  illustration,  and  harmony  upon  the  other.     In  Leviticus 
you  have  Christ  in  shadow,  —  the  shadowy  outline  in  which 
he  was  revealed  to  God's  ancient  people,  or  his  Church  in 
its  infancy.     Li  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  you  have  the 
shadowy  outline  of  Leviticus  absorbed  and  lost,  or  rather 
filled  up,  Avith  the  everlasting  and  glorious  substance,  and 
illuminated  by  his  light.     Now  Aaron,  and  his  priesthood, 
were  typical  of  Christ,  and  his  unchangeable  and  everlasting 
priesthood  ;  and  the  very  fact  that  the  Aaronitic  priesthood 
was  typical  of  Christ's,  is  proof  sufficient  that  there  is  no 
priesthood  existing  in  the  Christian  ministry  now  :  it  Avas  fully 
exhausted  in  Christ ;  it  was  merged  in  him  Avhen  he  lived, 
and  died,  and  rose  again  ;  and  it  is  pronounced  by  an  apostle 
to  be  so  completely  associated  Avith  Christ,  as  to  be  an  in- 
transferable  priesthood.     There  may,  therefore,  be  a  teacher, 
a  presbyter,  an  ambassador  in  the  Christian  Church ;  but  a 
saci'ificing  priest  there  cannot  be  Avithout  misleading  souls, 
and  doing  dishonor  to  Christ,  the  only  Priest  of  our  profes- 
sion, and  ignoring  the  Ncav"  Testament. 

NoAv  the  induction  or  consecration  of  Aaron  Avas,  Ave  are 
told,  carried  on,  and  almost  conferred  by  Moses.  I  think,  to 
the  extreme  High-Church  party,  what  is  contained  in  this 
chapter  must  be  very  startling  ;  for  the  first  high-priest  Avas 
plainly  consecrated  and  set  apart  to  his  office  by  a  layman. 
Moses  Avas  a  layman.  True,  he  acted  by  God's  command ; 
true,  every  thing  he  said  Avas  by  the  authority  of  God,  and 
Avhat  he  had  said  to  him  ;  but  still  here  is  a  fact :  —  it  Avas 
Moses  that  sprinkled  the  altar ;  At  Avas  Moses  that  "  took  the 
blood  and  put  it  upon  the  horns  of  the  altar,  round  about 
Avith  his  finger ; "  it  was  Moses  that  "  took  the  blood,  and  put 


LEVITICUS    VIII.  59 

it  upon  the  tip  of  Aaron's  right  ear,  and  upon  the  thumb  of 
his  right  hand,  and  upon  the  great  toe  of  his  right  foot." 
Thus,  then,  God  gave  a  layman  authority  and  jurisdiction  of 
the  very  highest  description  in  the  Christian  temple.  It  may 
be  called  the  very  essence  of  Erastianism  —  it  may  shock 
many  now  as  an  interference  with  sacred  offices ;  but  it  sug- 
gests useful  truths.  In  the  history  of  the  Church  of  Christ, 
for  the  last  eighteen  centuries,  priests  have  often  corrupted  it, 
and  laymen  have  often  purified  it.  It  is  a  melancholy  fact, 
that  the  great  introducers  of  errors  have  not  been  generally 
the  laity  :  they  have  had  their  share  ;  but  the  priests,  or  the 
ministry  so  called,  have  introduced  far  more  errors,  and  said 
more  subtle  things  to  defend  them,  in  one  century,  than  all 
the  laity  have  said  for  eighteen;  and  I  do  therefore  feel, 
from  the  precedents  that  are  before  me,  and  from  other  facts, 
as  it  seems  to  me  that  we  have  less  to  fear  from  the  lay  ele- 
ment in  the  Christian  Church  than  we  have  from  the  eccle- 
siastical ;  and  I  have  always  rejoiced  to  see  the  lay  element 
mixed  up  with  the  ecclesiastical,  in  order  among  other  ob- 
jects, to  keep  the  ecclesiastical  element  right.  It  is  a  melan- 
choly fact,  that  every  profession  —  and  so  far,  of  course,  the 
ministry  of  the  Gospel  is  itself  a  profession  —  that  is  the 
lowest  sense,  but  it  is  a  sense  —  is  very  prone  to  magnify 
itself,  —  very  prone  to  exalt  its  own  claims,  and  therefore  it 
needs  the  diluting  presence  of  other  and  resistent  elements 
to  keep  it  in  order.  Hence,  I  always  have  thought,  that  in 
the  Scottish  Church,  for  instance,  where  the  laity  is  mixed 
with  the  clergy,  there  is  a  most  precious  provision.  And  if 
ever  what  is  called  a  Convocation  be  restored  in  this  country 
—  and  if  restored  at  the  present  time,  I  believe  it  would  do 
incalculable  mischief,  because  it  is  well  known  that  a  portion 
are  what  are  called  semipapists,  being  papists  in  all  but  the 
name  ;  and  I  fear,  with  all  respect  for  that  church,  that  the 
minority  are  those  who  love  and  preach  Bible  and  evangel- 
ical Christianity.     If,  therefore,  a  Convocation  were  restored, 


60  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

and  restored  on  the  Tractarian  type  and  model,  the  conse- 
quence would  be  that  every  pious  man  would  be  thrust  out,  and 
there  would  be  an  Anglo-Cathohc  ecclesiastical  corporation, 
munificently  endowed,  which  would  crush  the  liberty  and  in- 
jure the  influence  of  living  religion.  As  soon  as  the  evangel- 
ical element  has  got  the  ascendancy,  then  will  be  the  time  for 
the  Convocation  to  be  restored  ;  and  if  ever  it  be  restored,  it 
ought  to  be  a  sine  qua  non  that  laymen  shall  constitute  at 
least  one  third  of  it ;  if  they  do  not,  the  mischief  will  be 
incalculable  and  unspeakable;  nothing  but  Hildebrandism 
of  the  very  worst  stamp  can  advocate  an  institution  composed 
exclusively  of  the  clergy,  to  determine  all  questions,  and  to 
put  an  end  as  they  call  it  to  all  disputes. 

Here  then  we  have  a  lay  element  introducing  a  high  cler- 
ical one ;  or,  Moses,  by  God's  command,  consecrating  and 
anointing  Aaron  to  the  high  and  holy  office  which  he  held. 

AVe  notice,  too,  that  on  this  occasion,  Avhen  Aaron  was 
consecrated,  "  the  whole  congregation  was  gathered  together 
unto  the  door  of  the  tabernacle."  Now  that  seems  to  me  a 
very  beaut'iful  trait.  It  does  seem  to  me  that  in  the  Chris- 
tian Church  in  modern  times,  when  a  minister  is  ordained,  it 
should  not  be  in  the  presence  of  ministers  only,  but  in  the^ 
face  of  the  whole  congregation.  "When  Aaron  was  conse- 
crated, the  whole  congregation  were  assembled  as  witnesses, 
as  well  as  to  join  in  supplication  for  a  blessing  on  his  head. 

You  will  notice,  too,  in  the  consecration  of  Aaron  in  the 
sixth  verse,  the  special  importance  attached  to  washing  Avith 
water.  Tradition  has  carefully  preserved  this  rite.  I  have 
often  made  the  remark,  that  whenever  you  see  a  bad  sover- 
eign it  is  an  argument  for  the  existence  somewhere  of  a 
good  one.  There  cannot  be  a  forged  thing  or  a  mockery 
without  the  original.  Wherever  you  find  a  practice  in  tra- 
dition —  in  the  traditional  history  of  mankind  —  analogous 
to  what  you  find  in  this  book,  you  will  see  it  is  the  distorted 
remains  of  what  was  revealed  to  Moses  in  the  ancient  Levit- 


LEVITICUS    VIII.  61 

ical  economy.  This  washing  with  water,  which  was  first  in- 
troduced and  instituted  here,  was  a  practice  that  subsequently- 
prevailed  among  all  religions,  as  may  be  proved  in  ancient 
and  modern  times.  The  Egyptians  subsequently,  I  believe, 
and  not  antecedently  to  this  —  the  Egyptian  priests  always 
washed  twice  a  day  in  water  ;  the  Greeks  had  their  sprink- 
lings, the  Romans  their  iustrations  with  water ;  the  Romish 
church  has  retained  a  shadow  of  this,  in  what  is  called  "  holy 
water,"  or,  in  the  priest  di^^ping  his  fingers  in  water,  before 
he  oflEiciates  at  the  altar.  In  fact,  you  will  find  much  of  the 
ceremonial  at  the  consecration  of  Aaron  in  the  practice  of  the 
Romish  church.  If  you  will  open  the  Pontificale  Romanum, 
or  the  Ceremoniah  Romanum,  you  will  find  there  almost  all 
the  ceremonies  that  were  employed  in  the  Levitical  economy 
at  the  consecration  of  Aaron,  in  the  consecration  of  a  modern 
Romish  priest  or  bishop.  You  ask,  then.  Is  it  not  very 
scriptural  ?  I  answer,  No ;  but  quite  the  reverse  :  because 
it  is  copied  from  these  ceremonies,  therefore  it  is  unscriptural. 
You  ask.  Why  ?  Because  all  these  are  met  and  exhausted 
as  types  and  symbols  in  Christ  the  substance ;  and  to  intro- 
duce them  into  the  Christian  church  now  is  to  forget  that 
eighteen  centuries  have  elapsed ;  that  Christ,  upon  the  cross, 
cried, "  It  is  finished  !  "  and  that  Aaron,  and  Moses,  and  Levi, 
were  buried  Avith  Christ,  —  only  Christ  rose  from  the  dead,  — 
and  they,  with  their  wasted  and  worn-out  robes,  have  been 
left  to  moulder  behind.  To  be  scriptural  is  not  to  copy  the 
letter,  but  to  copy  the  spirit  as  well  as  the  letter  of  the  word 
of  God.  To  wear  Aaron's  mitre  is  not  to  have  Aaron's  suc- 
cession, but  to  practise  a  worthless  and  an  unmeaning  cere- 
mony ;  to  have  the  washings,  and  dippings,  and  sprinklings 
that  he  had,  though  in  the  letter  it  looks  like  what  is  enjoined 
here,  is  in  spirit  altogether-  incompatible  with  it ;  for  our 
High-Priest  is  in  the  holy  place,  and  God  now  seeketh  not 
this  mount  nor  that  mount,  but  true  Christians,  in  spirit  and 
in  truth,  to  worship  him. 

6 


62  SCRirTURE    READINGS. 

So,  again,  the  Mahometans  practise  frequent  ablutions 
before  they  enter  their  mosques,  and  the  Hindoos  ahnost 
worship  the  water  of  the  holy  Ganges,  and  look  upon  ablu- 
tions in  it  as  of  special  value.  Now  all  these  are  the  dis- 
torted remains,  the  distorted  relics  of  an  ancient  truth, 
floating  like  drift  wood  on  the  waves  of  time,  and  remind- 
ing us  of  the  grand  spiritual  rites,  instituted  by  God 
himself,  of  which  they  are  the  broken  and  dismantled  frag- 
ments. 

You  will  find  another  feature  here  which  has  often  been 
noticed.  In  all  the  furniture,  on  all  the  ornaments  appoint- 
ed for  Aaron  —  the  mitre  for  his  head,  the  golden  plate,  the 
holy  crown,  the  breastplate,  the  Urim  and  the  Thummim, 
the  ephod  and  the  girdle,  and  all  the  other  robes,  —  there  is 
no  mention  of  sandals ;  and  we  are  led  from  this  and  other 
passages  to  infer,  that  the  ancient  Jewish  priests  always 
offered  their  sacrifices  with  their  feet  bare.  We  should 
come  to  this  conclusion,  not  only  from  this  omission  of  san- 
dals or  coverings  for  the  feet  in  the  Levitical  inventory,  but 
from  traditional  remains  in  other  countries  also.  For  in- 
stance, in  the  temple  of  Diana,  in  ancient  Rome,  the  priests 
and  priestesses  had  always  to  enter  with  bare  feet.  The 
Mahometan  leaves  his  slippers  behind  him  when  he  goes 
into  the  mosque ;  and  the  Abyssinian  Christian,  it  is  very 
singular,  at  the  present  day,  always  leaves  his  shoes  or  his 
slippers  outside  when  he  goes  into  a  Christian  temple ;  and 
the  Brahmins  whenever  they  enter  a  temple  always  go  in 
with  their  feet  naked.  It  may  be  that  this  is  the  remains 
of  an  ancient  form.  AVhen  a  person  in  this  country  wishes 
to  show  courtesy  to  a  superior  or  to  an  equal,  or  to  fulfil  the 
ordinary  courtesies  of  life,  he  takes  off  his  hat.  This  is 
our  western  and  northern  habit.  But  an  eastern  would  re- 
tain his  hat,  or  his  turban,  or  his  fez,  or  whatever  it  may 
be,  and  would  take  off  his  slippers  or  his  sandals  as  a  mark 
of  respect  and  courtesy  to  you.     What  does  all  this  teach 


I 


LEVITICUS    VIII.  63 

US  ?  That  outward  customs  vary  witli  latitude  and  longi- 
tude, but  interior  cliaracter  lasts  forever.  And  I  tliink  it  is 
one  of  the  grand  and  striking  proofs  of  the  reality  and 
divinity  of  our  blessed  religion,  that  it  has  made  essentials 
fixed  like  the  stars  in  their  orbits,  but  left  the  circumstan- 
tials of  religion  floating,  and  dishevelled,  and  variable,  as 
the  clouds  in  the  sky.  And,  because  our  religion  has  noth- 
ing of  the  ceremonial  rigidity  of  Mahomctanism  and  Ilin- 
dooism,  and  other  religions  which  are  local,  because  of 
human  origin ;  but,  on  the  contrary,  has  made  the  moral 
and  the  spiritual  immutable,  but  left  the  ceremonial  all  varia- 
ble, therefore  we  infer  from  this  alone,  that  it  must  have 
God  for  its  author,  truth  for  its  matter,  inspiration  for  its 
beginning,  glory  to  God,  with  happiness  to  mankind,  as  its 
blessed  issue. 

The  consecration  of  Aaron,  which  lasted  seven  days,  and 
was  therefore  perfect,  is  frequently  alluded  to  in  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews,  in  connection  with  our  High-Priest.  The 
Greek  word,  which  means  to  make  perfect,  is  used  in  the 
Septuagint  for  consecration.  Keeping  this  in  view,  we  un- 
derstand Jesus  made  perfect  by  suffering,  that  is,  he  reached 
the  fulfilment  of  his  fitness  for  his  office. 

Abraham's  faith  by  his  work  was  made  perfect,  (Jas.  ii. 
22,)  that  is,  attained  its  end  and  vindicated  its  reality. 

Heb.  V.  9.  Being  made  perfect,  lie  became  the  author  of 
eternal  salvation  unto  all  tliem  that  obey  him. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

KECAPITULATION — AAEON  ENTERS  ON  HIS  OFFICE  —  HIS  rERFEC- 

TiON — Aaron's  first  sacrifice  —  the  appearance  of  jeho- 

VAH  —  the  priestly  BENEDICTION. 

You  will  recollect  the  great  truth  I  have  endeavored 
to  inculcate,  that  God  designs  by  line  upon  line,  precept 
upon  precept,  here  a  little,  there  a  little,  to  impress  upon 
the  hearts  and  consciences  of  all  humanity  that  there  could 
be  forgiveness,  pardon  of  sin,  acceptance  before  God  for  a 
fallen  family,  only  through  the  shedding  of  the  precious 
blood  of  One  who  should  die,  the  just  for  the  unjust,  a  per- 
fect propitiation  and  sacrifice,  in  the  fulness  of  the  times. 
We  all  know  quite  well,  that  in  order  to  make  a  lesson 
deeply  felt  it  must  be  frequently  repeated.  So  God  fre- 
quently repeats,  and  minutely  describes,  these  offerings  and 
sacrifices,  and  the  significant  accompaniments  of  them, 
which  were  calculated  to  teach  and  train  the  people  in  the 
great  truth  that  there  was  something  wrong  between  human- 
ity and  God,  and  that  there  could  be  pardon  only  in  some 
way  that  should  vindicate  the  justice  as  well  as  convey  the 
mercy  of  Him  that  pardoned,  and  create  in  the  heart  of  the 
pardoned  gratitude  and  responsive  love.  In  order  also  to 
make  them  long  for  the  glorious  Deliverer,  he  made  them 
feel  at  the  very  time  that  they  offered  tliese  sacrifices  that 
the  blood  of  bulls  and  of  goats,  and  the  ashes  of  an  heifer, 
never  could  really  take  away  sin,  and  that  therefore  they 
must  look  above  them  and  beyond  them,  and  cry  for  some- 

(64) 


LEVITICUS    IX.  65 

thing  the  same  in  kind,  but  of  infinite  efficacy,  described  so 
briefly  and  so  beautifully  by  the  evangelist,  when  he 
says,  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son  cleanseth  from 
all  sin." 

In  the  second  place,  I  think  I  have  vindicated  before,  the 
ceaseless  reiteration-  of  these  varied  sacrifices  and  the  exist- 
ence of  them,  so  far  as  they  can  be  vindicated,  with  regard 
to  those  who  are  enamored  of  every  thing  Greek  and  Ro- 
man, but  shrink  with  wonderful  dismay  from  every  thing 
Jewish  and  Levitical.  Now  I  stated  on  a  former  occasion, 
that  there  were  the  same  sacrifices  among  the  Romans,  the 
same  among  the  Greeks,  but  accompanied  with  barbarous 
and  repulsive  rites  that  were  altogether  strange  to  the 
heaven-taught  Jew ;  and  that  if  it  be  .just  reason  to  object 
to  the  Jewish  economy  that  such  rites  and  sacrifices  as  these 
prevailed,  there  is,  a  fortiori,  a  stronger  reason  still  to  ob- 
ject to  the  most  accomplished  Greeks  and  Romans  for  the 
repulsive  and  horrible  sacrifices  and  offerings  which  they 
were  in  the  habit  of  making.  But  in  the  one  case,  in  the 
Jew,  we  have  expressly  Divine  prescription  ;  in  the  case  of 
the  Roman  and  the  Greek  we  have  that  original  divine  pre- 
scription distorted,  perverted,  and  corrupted,  by  the  tradi- 
tions of  man. 

In  this  chapter  we  have  the  continuation  of  that  most 
interesting  ceremony  which  was  begun  in  the  previous  chap- 
ter —  namely,  the  consecration  of  Aaron  to  be  the  high- 
priest,  with  all  the  accompaniments  of  that  sublime  and 
impressive  function.  You  will  see  the  vast  importance  of 
reading  this  from  the  fact  that,  if  you  open  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  you  will  be  utterly  unable  to  understand  the 
most  precious  and  the  most  distinctive  truths  of  Christianity, 
unless  you  have  studied  and  read  the  sacrifices  and  the 
priesthood  of  the  Levitical  economy.  You  have  here  the 
shadow  of  a  great  Original ;  the  dim  prefigurations  of  Him 
that  was  to  come  in  the  fulness  of  the  times ;  and  all  the 

G* 


66  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

statements  respecting  Christ  in  the  New  Testament  are 
made  on  the  supposition  that  you  are  acquainted  with  the 
Old ;  they  are  allusive  to  the  Old,  and  there  is  no  under- 
standing the  New  Testament  except  you  have  thoroughly 
understood  and  studied  the  Old.  No  man  can  see  the  con- 
nection of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  unless  he  has  read 
the  writings  of  Moses  in  Leviticus,  and  Deuteronomy,  and 
Numbers ;  and  you  will  never  see  the  beauty,  the  perfec- 
tion, and  the  glory  of  Christ,  the  Great  High-Priest,  until 
you  have  read  the  accompaniments  of  the  consecration,  dedi- 
cation, and  functions  of  Aaron,  the  typical  high-priest. 

In  this  chaj^ter  we  read  first  of  all,  that  "  on  the  eighth 
day  Moses  called  Aaron  and  his  sons,  and  the  elders  of 
Israel."  During  seven  days  the  rites  that  accompanied  the 
consecration  of  Aaron  lasted ;  on  the  eighth  day,  the  first 
day  after  his  consecration  had  been  completed,  he  was  ready 
to  enter  upon  the  great  functions  of  his  office.  Now  the 
number  seven  is  always  used  among  the  Jews,  and  con- 
stantly in  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  as  the  great  type  of 
that  which  is  perfect.  We  read  of  seven  days  in  the  week,  a 
complete  period ;  seven  years,  a  complete  period ;  seven 
times  seven,  the  year  of  jubilee  ;  the  "  seven  Spirits,"  repre- 
senting the  one  Holy  Spirit;  "the  seven  stars,"  or  "the 
seven  angels,"  representative  of  the  complete  ministry  of 
the  Church  of  Christ.  And  so  throughout  the  Bible  you 
w^ill  find  the  number  seven  constantly  identified  with  perfec- 
tion. Now  this  high-priest,  Aaron,  was  here  consecrated 
during  seven  days,  that  he  might  be  perfect ;  so  the  allusions 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  are  in  such  words  as  these : 
"  He  hath  made  the  Captain  of  our  salvation  perfect  through 
suffering ; "  that  is  an.  allusion  to  the  perfect  consecration 
of  Aaron,  who  was  seven  days  in  being  consecrated,  and 
then  was  thoroughly  equipped  for  his  office.  So  Jesus,  the 
Captain  of  our  faith,  was  made  perfect,  that  is,  completely 
consecrated,  in  all  respects  answering  to  the  type ;  in  all 


LEVITICUS    IX.  67 

respects  fitted  for  the  great  work  of  being  the  Great  Iligh- 
Pricst  of  liis  people  Israel. 

Again,  you  will  notice  here  that  the  first  sacritice  that 
Aaron  was  commanded  to  offer  ^vas  the  sacrifice  of  a  slain 
calf.  Some  have  thought  that  there  is  here,  underlying  the 
prescrijition,  an  allusion  to  his  great  sin  when  he  made  the 
representation  of  a  calf  out  of  the  golden  trinkets  of  the 
people,  and  made  the  peoj)le  bow  down  and  worship  it ;  and 
that  here  the  appointment  of  a  calf  to  be  a  sacrifice,  when 
he  entered  on  his  office,  had  underlying  it  an  allusion  and 
reference  to  that  great  sin  of  which  Aaron,  as  the  leader  of 
the  people,  had  on  one  occasion  been  guilty. 

We  then  read,  in  the  fourth  verse,  that  he  was  to  offer 
these  sacrifices,  and  that  "  to-day  the  Lord  will  appear  unto 
you."  I  explained  on  a  former  occasion,  that  the  glory  that 
marched  through  the  desert  in  the  shape  of  a  pillar  of  fire 
by  night  was  the  shechinah,  or  the  splendid  evidence  of  the 
presence  of  God.  We  then  find  that  when  the  tabernacle 
was  built,  this  glory,  or  shechinah,  rested  between  the  cheru- 
bim on  the  mercy-seat;  and  when  Moses  therefore  stated 
that  God  should  appear  to  Aaron,  it  is  not  that  God  the 
Father  should  be  made  visible,  but  that  the  shechinah,  or 
the  splendor  —  the  celestial  splendor,  the  unearthly  bright- 
ness kindled  from  heaven  and  kept  bright  and  burning  by  a 
ceaseless  miracle  —  should  appear  in  the  presence  of  the 
people,  and  show  that  the  offering  was  accepted,  and  that 
the  offerer  was  fit  for  his  office. 

We  see  that  when  Aaron  here  offered  he  was  to  offer  first 
for  his  own  sins,  and  then  for  the  sins  of  the  people.  Now 
we  read,  in  contrast,  but  allusive  contrast  to  this,  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  that  Jesus  needed  not  to  offer  first 
for  his  own  sins,  and  then  for  the  sins  of  the  people  ;  but 
the  true  High-Priest  had  no  sins  to  offer  for,  and  therefore 
his  offering  was  exclusively  and  wholly  for  the  benefit  and 
for  the  blessing  of  the  people. 


68  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

We  notice  in  tlie  loth  verse  that  "  he  brought  the  peo- 
ple's offering,  and  took  the  goat  which  was  the  sin-ofFering 
for  the  people."  Wherever  you  find  the  word  "  sin-offer- 
ing" in  tliis  chapter,  it  is  literally  the  translation  of  the 
Hebrew  word  for  sin ;  and  this  will  explain  to  you  instantly 
how  completely  the  sin-offering  was  identified  with  the  sin 
of  the  offerer.  The  animal  slain  was  typically  made  the 
sin  of  the  slayer  of  it ;  and  the  idea  designed  to  be  conveyed 
was  that  the  sins  of  the  offerer  were  transferred  to  the  vic- 
tim ;  and  that  when  the  victim  was  slain,  and  its  blood  shed, 
the  offerer's  sins  were  annihilated  and  he  forgiven.  Well' 
now  this  phraseology  is  beautifully  applied  to  our  blessed 
Lord  in  2  Corinthians  v.  21 :  "  God  hath  made  him  wlio 
knew  no  sin,  to  be  sin  for  us ;  that  we  might  be  made  the 
righteousness  of  God  by  him."  That  is,  just  as  the  victim 
under  Levi  had  the  sin  of  the  people  cast  upon  it,  and  its 
death  was  assumed  to  be  the  annihilation  of  that  sin,  so  when 
you,  the  chiefest  of  sinners,  believe  on  Christ  the  only  Sav- 
iour, your  sin  is  so  transferred  to  him,  and  laid  upon  him, 
and  identified  with  him,  that  you  receive  the  blessedness  of 
that  man  whose  transgression  is  forgiven,  whose  iniquities 
are  pardoned,  and  to  whom  the  Lord  imputeth  no  sin.  It  is 
then  that  Christ  becomes  the  great  sin-bearer  of  his  peo- 
ple —  is  made  sin  for  his  people ;  and  you  will  never  appre- 
ciate clearly  the  doctrine  of  justification  by  faith,  or  feel  its 
blessedness  and  its  peace,  till  you  have  coHtrasted  Christ's 
sacrifice,  and  Christ  the  Priest,  with  the  sacrifices  and  the 
priesthood  of  the  Levitical  economy. 

Moses  on  this  occasion  accompanied  Aaron  into  the  holy 
of  holies.  This  was  contrary  to  the  law  in  most  cases  ;  but 
Moses,  being  here  the  great  medium  of  teaching  to  Aaron 
and  to  all  the  people  what  was  God's  will,  was  authorized  — 
and  not  only  authorized,  but  it  was  his  duty  —  to  go  into  the 
holy  place  upon  this  occasion  along  with  Aaron,  and  teach 
him. 


LEVITICUS    IX.  69 

We  read  in  the  next  place  of  the  glory  of  God  appearing 
when  Aaron  came  out  and  blessed  the  })eople.  "  And  the 
glory  of  the  Lord,"  —  that  is  the  sitechinah,  —  "  appeared 
unto  all  the  people  ; "  and,  lastly,  ''  consumed  upon  the  altar 
the  burnt-ofFering."  All  the  sacrifices  of  Levi  were  consumed 
by  fire  which  came  down  from  heaven  ;  and  the  consuming 
of  the  victim  by  fire  Avas  the  evidence  to  them  that  God  was 
pleased,  and  that  the  offering  was  accef)ted.  So  we  read  in 
1  Kings  viii.  10 :  "  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  priests 
were  come  out  of  the  holy  place,  that  the  cloud  filled  the 
liouse  of  the  Lord,  so  that  the  priests  could  not  stand  to  min- 
ister because  of  the  cloud :  for  the  glory  of  the  Lord  had 
filled  the  house."  And  that  was  regarded  as  a  token  that 
the  offerer  and  his  offering  were  accepted  and  owned  of  God. 

Now  all  this  is  just  a  sign-post,  preaching  and  pointing  to 
one  higher,  and  holier,  and  greater  than  Aaron.  You  have 
here  the  gospel  as  the  people  learned  it  in  the  days  of  Moses. 
We  have  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  all  this  explained  ; 
and,  by  the  brilliancy  and  sharpness  of  the  contrast  between 
the  Great  High-Priest  and  the  typical  high-priest,  moral  and 
spiritual  truths  are  made  more  clear,  more  impressive,  and 
instructive  to  Christians. 


CHAPTER    X. 

A  SOLEMN  judgment: DEATH  OP  THE  SONS  OP  AARON  —  EXCESS  OF 

wine — strange  eire  :  its  meaning  —  reasons  of  punishing 
Aaron's  silence  —  god  speaks  to  aaron  —  iiebrew  the  pri- 
meval TONGUE high-priest's  DUTIES. 

Amidst  the  joyous  scenes  recorded  in  the  previous  chap- 
ter, when  the  priests  of  the  Most  High  presented  their  offer- 
ings to  the  Lord  with  all  acceptance,  and  when  God  blessed 
them,  and  made  permanent  his  institutions  and  his  ordinances 
for  their  comfort  and  progress  —  amidst  all  these  scenes  of 
joyful  and  grateful  recollections,  there  occurs  one  painful, 
solemn,  and  strikingly  impressive  incident  presented  in  the 
opening  words  of  this  chapter.  We  have  an  account  of  these 
two  sons  of  Aaron  in  a  previous  part  of  Exodus  ;  where  we 
read,  "  Then  went  up  Moses  and  Aaron,  Nadab  and  Abihu, 
and  seventy  of  the  elders  of  Israel :  and  they  saw  the  God 
of  Israel :  and  there  was  under  his  feet  as  it  were  a  paved 
work  of  a  sapphire  stone,  and  as  it  were  the  body  of  heaven 
in  his  clearness."  But  how  sad  and  melancholy  it  is  that 
those  who  had  been  blessed  with  the  most  exalted  privileges, 
should  be  first  signalized  as  enduring,  and  receiving  unto 
tlieir  souls,  the  most  exterminating  judgments  !  It  seems  as 
if  it  was  an  illustration  of  that  awful  saying  of  Peter,  "  If 
judgment  begin  at  the  house  of  God,  what  shall  be  the  end  of 
them  that  receive  not  the  Gospel?"  —  that  is,  if  God  thiis 
chasten  part  of  the  misconduct  of  his  own,  how  severely  will 
he  punish  the  awful  sins  and  final  unbelief  of  them  that  re- 
ceive not  the  Gospel!  It  seems  from  the. statement  in  the 
(70). 


LEVITICUS    X.  71 

ninth  find  tenth  verses  of  this  chapter,  that  one  cause,  at  Ictast, 
of  their  great  sin  —  great,  because  of  the  circumstances  in 
which  they  were  placed,  and  the  dignity  and  rank  they  sus- 
tained —  was  excess  of  wine.  In  the  ninth  verse  of  this 
chapter  we  are  told  that  the  Lord  spake  unto  Aaron,  saying, 
"  Do  not  drink  wine  nor  strong  drink,  thou,  nor  thy  sons  with 
thoe,  when  thou  goest  into  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation." 
Now  this  command  immediately  succeeding  the  judgment 
that  here  overtook  the  sons  of  Aaron,  would  seem  to  imply 
that  they  must  have  drunk  wine  to  excess,  and  thereby  erred 
in  the  duties,  and  laws,  and  requirements  of  the  public  wor- 
ship of  God.  At  the  same  time,  the  actual  sin  itself — the 
sin  expressly  so  called  —  was  that  they  oiFered  "  strange  fire  " 
in  their  censers.  This  reminds  us  that  there  were  two 
things  that  were  essential  in  the  institutions  of  Aaron  ;  first, 
that  the  sacrifice  should  be  offered  only  upon  one  altar  — 
the  great  type  of  Christ,  the  true  Sacrifice  ;  secondly,  that 
the  incense  —  the  sacrifice  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  — 
should  be  burned  in  a  censer  that  contained  coals  of  fire  taken 
from  the  fire  that  was  originally  kindled  from  heaven ;  to 
represent  that  not  only  are  we  to  offer  our  prayers  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  but  we  are  also  to  seek  that  those  prayers 
may  be  inspired  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  in  our  hearts, 
l^rjiyer  that  is  offered  in  any  other  name  than  Christ's  can- 
not be  accepted ;  and  the  prayer  that  is  suggested  in  the 
heart  by  any  but  the  Spirit  of  God,  revealing  to  God  our 
deep  wants,  and  interceding  within  us,  in  the  language  of 
the  apostle,  "  Avith  groanings  that  cannot  be  uttered,"  never 
will  be  accepted  before  God. 

This  punishment  that  fell  upon  the  two  sons  of  Aaron, 
Nadab  and  Abihu,  seems  a  very  severe  punishment.  But 
you  will  notice  that  the  high  and  dignified  position  they  oc- 
cupied, made  sin,  in  their  case,  far  more  grievous,  and  cal- 
culated to  do  much  more  extensive  mischief  among  Israel, 
than  if  it  had  been  perpetrated  by  some  one  occupying  a 


72  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

less  conspicuous  and  a  lowlier  position  in  the  State.  Though 
sin  is  in  itself  always  the  same,  yet,  committed  in  the  high 
places  of  the  land  by  those  who  occupy  in  Church  or  in 
State,  lofty  and  responsible  positions,  it  has  an  aggravation 
and  an  enormity  that  it  has  not  wdien  committed  by  those 
who  occupy  lowlier  and  obscurer  spheres  in  the  land.  Not 
that  the  sin  differs  in  its  absolute  and  personal  guilt,  but  that 
it  differs  in  the  influence  it  spreads  around  it.  Evil  in  high 
places  is  very  contagious  —  is  seen  by  many,  and  imitated  by 
more.  And,  because  these  two  sons  of  Aaron  occupied  high 
and  responsible  positions  in  the  arrangements  of  Israel,  their 
sin  required  to  be  signally  punished,  that  all  might  see  how 
evil  and  bitter  a  thing  it  is  to  depart  from  the  commands  of 
God.  And,  in  the  next  place,  this  was  the  commencement  of 
a  new  economy.  The  commander  of  an  army,  or  the  com- 
mander of  a  fleet,  must  insist  upon  rigid  discipline  at  the 
commencement  of  the  military  expedition,  or  of  the  sailing 
of  the  fleet ;  if  he  do  not,  the  issue  is  disastrous  to  the  sol- 
diers and  the  sailors,  as  it  will  be  injurious  to  great  interests 
and  painful  to  him.  Therefore,  at  the  commencement  of  a 
new  economy,  it  was  requisite  that  it  should  be  seen  that  the 
least  of  God's  laws  may  not  be  transgressed  with  impunity  ; 
and  that  the  authority  of  God  alone,  struck  upon  the  least 
and  the  loftiest,  must  be  the  great  reason  why  there  should  be 
instant,  unqualified,  and  undiluted  obedience. 

When  Aaron  heard  this,  and  saw  his  two  sons  struck  dead, 
it  is  said  in  most  eloquent  and  instructive  language,  —  "  And 
Aaron  held  his  peace."  He  had  nothing  to  say  —  even  the 
affection  of  a  parent  was  repelled  by  the  sense  of  justice  en- 
tertained in  the  bosom  of  the  high-priest  of  Israel. 

"We  find  that  after  this  scene,  God  speaks  now,  not  to 
Moses,  as  he  had  heretofore  done,  but  to  Aaron.  Heretofore 
God  spoke  to  Moses  to  give  instruction  to  Aaron  ;  but,  evi- 
dently as  an  expression  of  deep  sympathy  with  parental 
feeling,  in  the  eighth  verse  of  this  chapter,  for  the  first  time, 


LEVITCUS    X.  73 

he  ceases  to  give  directions  through  Moses  —  the  prime  min- 
ister of  that  economy  —  and  speaks  directly,  face  to  face,  to 
Aaron  the  high-priest,  as  if  to  comfort  and  cheer  him  under 
so  painful  and  severe  a  trial.  Some  have  said,  as  we  have 
already  noticed,  that  the  special  reason  here  —  that  one  great 
cause  why  these  two  sons  of  Aaron  thus  transgressed  the 
law  —  wa§  their  drinking  wine  and  strong  drink.  The  pro- 
hibition, therefore,  now  given  was  absolute  in  the  case  of  all 
the  priests  and  ministers  of  Israel.  It  is  not  absolute  in  our 
case ;  although  I  do  not  believe  that  society  would  suffer 
very  much  if  it  were  absolutely  obligatory.  When  we  read 
of  the  excesses  that  take  place  in  these  things,  one  is  almost 
tempted  at  times  to  wish  that  alcohol  were  banished  from 
society,  or  restricted  to  druggists'  shops,  and  to  be  partaken 
of  only  under  the  sanction  of  physicians'  prescriptions. 
Still  we  may  not  do  away  with  what  God  has  given  as  a 
good  gift ;  we  may  not  do  away  with  the  use  of  wune  be- 
cause men  abuse  it.  The  fact  is,  it  is  not  by  outward  me- 
chanical restrictions  that  men  are  changed,  but  it  is  only  by 
an  inner,  moral  transformation  ;  a  drunkard  without  principle 
will  be  drunk  if  he  drink  from  a  wine  bottle ;  another  man, 
who  hates  drunkenness,  will  not  be  drunk  if  he  drink  from  a 
wine  cask.  The  change  that  is  wanted,  therefore,  is  not  an 
outer,  mechanical,  coercive  restriction  ;  but  the  introduction 
into  the  heart  of  man  of  those  mighty  principles  that  teach 
us  and  train  us  to  live  soberly,  righteously,  and  godly  in  this 
present  world. 

In  speaking  of  the  word  which  is  here  translated  "  strong 
drink,"  I  may  notice  that  it  is  one  of  those  expressions  that 
seem  to  be  preserved  in  so  many  languages.  I  think  I  have 
noticed  before,  that  the  Avord  "  wine  "  is  almost  the  same  in 
every  language  under  the  sun.  I  noticed  before,  too,  the 
very  singular  fact,  that  the  word  "  sack,"  referred  to  in  a 
previous  part,  is  the  same  in  almost  every  language.  So 
the  Hebrew  word  translated  "strong  drink"  seems  to  have 

7 


7d  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

become  very  mucb  incorporated  with  other  languages.  The 
HebrcAV  word  is  shahar ;  and  this  wo]'d  at  this  moment  is 
used  in  India  to  denote  a  strong  drink.  In  the  Greek  it  is 
oiiispa ;  in  the  Latin  it  is  sicera  ;  and  in  the  English  it  is 
supposed  to  have  found  its  rest  finally  in  the  word  "  cider," 
expressive  of  an  intoxicating,  though  not  a  very  intoxicating, 
drink.  And  from  the  same  word  comes  our  word  "  sugar," 
or  the  element  of  sweetness  ;  showing  how  singularly  a  word 
can  be  traced  to  its  original  derivation,  coming  down  tlirough 
successive  languages.  But  when  you  ascend  from  the  Eng- 
lish to  the  Latin,  from  the  Latin  to  the  Greek,  and  from 
these  to  the  Hebrew,  there  you  stop ;  and  what  does  that 
show  ?  That  the  Hebrew  is  the  primitive  language  ;  that 
all  the  rest  are  broken  fragments  and  dislocated  parts  of  a 
great  primal  tongue  ;  in  other  words,  proving  what  the  most 
accomplished  ethnologists  have  triumphantly  proved,  that  all 
the  languages  upon  earth  give  token  of  a  common  origin ; 
but  give  evidence,  too,  that  they  have  suffered  some  great 
dislocation  in  their  transmission. 

We  can  see,  then,  from  the  whole  of  this  chapter,  first,  how 
joyous  scenes  may  be  darkened  and  made  sorrowful  by  sin. 
Secondly,  we  learn  from  this  chapter  how  sinful  it  is  to  wor- 
ship God,  or  to  seek  to  serve  him,  in  any  other  sj^irit  or  in 
any  other  manner  than  that  which  he  himself  has  laid  down. 
We  learn  next,  that  God's  name  is  ever  to  be  sanctified  and 
to  be  had  in  reverence  by  all  them  that  draw  near  to  him. 

One  other  thing  I  have  not  noticed,  that  is,  the  command 
to  the  high-priest  not  to  uncover  his  head.  The  high-priest 
was  ordered  not  to  mourn  for  any,  or  put  on  the  tokens  and 
weeds  of  mourning ;  as  if  he  were  to  be  insulated  from  all 
the  rest  by  the  dignity,  the  responsibility,  and  the  gravity  of 
his  office. 

Are  our  eyes  on  the  altar  of  sacrifice,  waiting  for  the 
everlasting  Priest  to  come  out  and  bless  us  ?  "  To  them  that 
look  for  him  he  will  come  a  second  time  without  sin  unto 
salvation." 


LEVITICUS    X.  75 

Human  life  is  full  of  lights  and  shadows  —  the  sunshine 
of  to-day  is  lost  in  the  clouds  of  the  morrow.  The  peace  of 
half  a  century  is  suddenly  broken  by  the  sounds  of  war. 
Judgments  follow  mercies.  In  all  times,  however  prosper- 
ous, it  becomes  us  to  rejoice  with  trembling. 

We  see  how  sacredly  God  preserved  the  very  forms  of 
his  service  in  ancient  times.  It  was  sin  to  do  what  he  com- 
manded not,  as  it  was  to  do  what  he  had  positively  forbid- 
den, lie  looks  now  rather  to  the  heart  than  to  tlie  outward 
mode  of  expressing  its  inward  feelings.  But  still  he  will 
not  suffer  his  holy  ordinances  to  be  profaned,  or  his  worship 
to  be  corrupted  and  debased  by  superstition.  No  altar  sanc- 
tifies the  gift  but  Christ.  No  strange  fire  must  inspire  the 
heart,  but  the  presence  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  As 
Nadab  and  Abihu  found  their  punishment  to  spring  directly 
from  their*  sin,  so  still  God  makes  the  iniquities  of  his  peo- 
ple the  rods  with  which  they  are  chastened. 

The  awful  solemnity  felt  in  the  heart  of  Aaron,  the  father 
of  the  sufferers,  is  expressed  in  the  words  —  ''  Aaron  held 
his  peace."  He  saw  the  justice  and  necessity  of  this  terri- 
ble example.  His  heart  bled,  but  his  lips  were  dumb.  The 
prohibition  that  followed,  not  to  uncover  their  heads,  or  rend 
their  garments,  in  token  of  sorrow,  was  to  teach  that  the 
glory  of  God  must  supersede  all  personal  feeling. 

I  have  attended  to  the  probable  elements  of  the  crime  of 
which  the  sons  of  Aaron  were  guilty.  It  is  very  difficult  to 
determine  its  nature.  Perhaps  the  most  correct  estimate  is 
the  following,  given  by  Bush  the  American  annotator,  in  his 
valuable  notes  on  this  chapter :  — 

"  There  is  some  reason  to  suppose  that,  apart  from  the 
quality  of  the  fire  which  they  brought,  there  was  a  rash  in- 
trusion, and  a  reckless  irregularity  in  their  going  forward  to 
officiate  at  the  time,  and  in  the  manner  they  did.  The  whole 
transaction,  as  recorded,  has  an  air  of  abruptness  and  pre- 
cipitancy, as  if  they  rushed  upon  the  service  without  wait- 


76  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

ing  for  instructions,  either  from  Moses  or  Aaron ;  and  as  if 
tliey  were  encroaching  upon  the  functions  of  the  high-priest. 
If  by  the  phrase  '  offered  before  the  Lord,'  be  meant,  as 
some  suppose,  that  they  advanced  within  the  Most  Holy 
Place,  and  there  presumed  to  oifer  incense  before  the  She- 
kinah,  this  certainly  was  a  bold  invasion  of  Aaron's  prerog- 
ative, and  one  that  would  of  course  expose  them  to  be  at 
once  cut  off  for  their  hardihood.  This  idea  receives  some 
countenance  from  Lev.  xvi.  1,  2,  where  we  are  told  that 
*  the  Lord  spake  unto  Moses  after  the  death  of  the  two  sons 
of  Aaron,  when  they  offered  before  the  Lord  and  died :  and 
the  Lord  said  unto  Moses,  Speak  unto  Aaron  thy  brother, 
that  he  come  not  at  all  times  into  the  holy  place  within  the 
veil,  before  the  mercy-seat,  which  is  upon  the  ark ;  that  he 
die  not :  for  I  will  appear  in  the  cloud  upon  the  mercy- 
seat.'  Whether  this  be  the  correct  inference  'or  not,  we 
have  no  evidence  from  any  other  part  of  the  ritual  that 
more  than  one  priest  was  to  officiate  in  burning  incense  at 
the  same  time,  and  here  they  are  represented  as  entering 
together  upon  a  service  to  which  it  does  not  appear  that 
either  of  them  was  now  called. 

"  But  laying  aside  every  thing  that  is  uncertain  in  the 
affair,  we  find  a  definite  and  aggravated  offence  laid  to  their 
charge.  They  sinned  by  offering  a  strange  fire  before  the 
Lord.  Listead  of  filling  their  censers  with  coals  from  tlie 
altar,  where  a  supernatural  fire  had  been  kindled  from 
heaven,  and  which  was  always  to  be  used  in  burning  in- 
cense, they  contemptuously  disregarded  this  ordinance,  and 
filled  their  vessels  with  common  fire.  Tiiis  was  the  head 
and  front  of  their  offending,  whatever  minor  accessories  of 
guilt  may  have  accompanied  it. 

"  But  where,  it  is  said,  is  this  act  expressly  forbidden  ? 
Is  it  anywhere  ordered,  in  so  many  words,  that  only  one 
kind  of  fire  should  be  employed  in  the  services  of  the  sanc- 
tuary ?     And   if   there  was  no   express   precept  violated, 


LEVITICUS    X.  77 

wherein  consisted  the  essential  criminality  of  their  conduct  ? 
In  reply  to  this,  we  answer :  (1.)  That  in  the  phrase  '  which 
he  commanded  not,'  we  recognize,  according  to  the  idiom  of 
the  sacred  writers,  a  clear  intimation  that  the  thing  in  ques- 
tion had  been  expr-esshj  forbidden.  This  is  the  true  force  of 
the  expression,  as  we  shall  evince  in  our  note  on  the  pas- 
sage. (2.)  In  Ex.  XXX.  9,  it  is  commanded  that  no  ''  strange 
incense '  should  be  presented,  and  the  implication  would  be 
inevitable,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  that '  strange  fire ' 
was  equally  contrary  to  the  divine  will.  But  not  only  so, 
from  Lev.  xvi.  12,  13,  we  learn  that  on  the  day  of  atone- 
ment the  priest  was  to  '  take  a  censer  full  of  burning  coals 
of  fire  from  off  the  altar  before  the  Lord,  and  his  hands  full 
of  sweet  incense  beaten  small,  and  bring  it  within  the  vail : 
and  he  shall  put  the  incense  upon  the  fire  before  the  Lord, 
that  the  cloud  of  the  incense  may  cover  the  mercy-seat  that 
is  Vi\)Oi\  the  testimony,  that  he  die  not.'  The  order  contained 
in  this  passage  was  indeed  given  subsequent  to  the  event  we 
are  now  considering,  but  the  presumption  obviously  is,  that 
this  was  the  standing  usage  which  had  been  ordained  from 
the  first  institution  of  the  legal  rites,  and  as  to  which  it  is 
not  conceivable  that  Aaron's  sons  should  have  been  ignorant. 
And  as  the  fire  miraculously  kindled  on  the  altar  was  to  be 
kept  perpetually  alive,  what  other  inference  could  have  been 
drawn,  than  that  from  this  source  was  all  the  fire  to  be 
derived  which  was  employed  in  the  sacred  rites  ?  The  fact 
that  we  do  not  meet  with  any  such  injunction  in  express 
terms,  does  not  at  all  abate  the  force  of  the  probability,  that 
they  were  perfectly  aware  that  such  was  the  will  of  God  in 
rejTrard  to  this  matter." 


7* 


CHAPTER   XI. 

ANIMAL  FOOD — ANIJIAL  SACRIFICES — DISTINCTION  OF  CREATURES 
—  CHURCH  AND  STATE  —  DIETETIC  LAWS  —  THEIR  VALUE  —  IN- 
SULATION OF  THE  JEWS  —  HOSPITALITY,  ITS  POWER  AND  aiORAL 
INFLUENCE. 

All  will  readily  own  that  tlie  cliai^ter  I  have  read,  is  not 
certainly  so  instructive  to  us  as  individuals,  or  as  members 
of  a  brighter  and  a  better  dispensation ;  yet  it  has,  like  all 
parts  of  the  Word  of  God,  its  own  jDCculiar  and  obvious  im- 
portance. It  seems  at  first  sight  a  distressing  thing  that 
God  should  thus  regard  any  portion  of  his  creatures  as  in 
any  sense  impure  and  unclean,  or  still  more  that  he  should 
suffer  any  portion  of  his  living  creatures  to  be  employed  for 
the  food  of  mankind.  We  find  that  prior  to  the  Flood  ani- 
mal food  was  not  eaten,  nor  allowed  in  the  primitive  state. 
The  first  instance  we  find  of  animals  slain  was  in  Paradise. 
When  the  sun  of  its  innocence  set  beneath  its  horizon,  we 
read  that  then  God  clothed  Adam  and  Eve  with  skins ; 
which  must  have  been  the  skins  of  animals  that  were  slain 
for  sacrifices,  then  first  instituted,  as  the  case  of  Abel  and 
of  Cain  subsequently  shows,  and  not  of  animals  that  were 
eaten  as  food.  But  after  the  Flood,  when  man  seems  to 
have  become  degenerated,  and  his  vital  powers  to  have  been 
impaired,  we  find  that  animal  food  was  permitted.  But 
being  permitted,  it  was  requisite  that  a  young  race,  without 
the  experience  that  we  have,  should  be  instructed  what  sorts 
of  food  were  best  on  the  whole  for  the  nutriment  of  man. 
And  if  this  was  the  only  reason  —  which  it  was  not  —  it 
(78) 


LEVITICUS    XI.  79 

was  not  iinwortliy  of  God,  the  great  Benefjietor,  to  make 
tlic  distinctions  that  are  here  given.  Many  people  have  a 
notion  that  there  is  something  unworthy,  or,  if  I  may  not  be 
misunderstood,  undignified,  in  God  descending  to  such  paltry 
regulations,  or,  as  they  would  call  it,  to  little  things.  But 
may  not  this  be  proof  of  his  presence  ?  The  truth  is,  I 
know  not  whether  God  is  greatest  when  he  wields  and 
wheels  the  planets  in  their  orbits,  or  when  he  clothes  the 
lily  with  all  its  loveliness,  and  finds  its  daily  food  for  the 
ephemeral  insect  that  is  born  and  perishes  in  a  day.  God's 
greatest  glory  is  often  in  his  ministry  to  the  minutest  things. 
"We  call  them  minute,  because,  with  considerable  self-con- 
ceit, we  make  ourselves  the  stand-point  from  which  we  look 
at  every  thing ;  that  which  is  very  much  above  ourselves 
we  think  very  great,  and  that  which  is  below  ourselves  we 
think  very  little.  Whereas  the  truth  is,  that  the  microscope 
has  revealed  to  man  far  more  stupendous  wonders  in  a  drop 
of  water  than  the  telescope  has  revealed  in  the  starry  firma- 
ment above  him ;  and  we  have  more  majestic  footprints  of 
infinite  wisdom,  beneficence,  and  power,  and  love,  visible  in 
an  atom  of  dust  than  in  the  firmament  above  us.  And, 
therefore,  it  was  not  unworthy  of  God,  who  ministers  to  his 
creatures  the  bread  of  life,  to  lay  down  what  I  may  call 
these  dietetic  precepts,  or  such  regulations  for  their  nutri- 
ment as  are  given  in  this  and  parallel  chapters.  God  wants 
man  not  only  to  be  happy  in  heaven,  but  he  wants  him  to 
be  happy  on  earth ;  and  he  takes  the  way  of  making  him 
happy  by  trying  in  these  rubrics  to  show  him  that  sin  and 
disobedience  to  his  Word  are  the  spring  of  misery ;  that 
obedience  to  God's  Word  is  the  source  of  all  true  and  last- 
ing happiness. 

Now  these  distinctions  laid  down  in  this  chapter  were  not 
instituted  strictly  at  the  time  specified  here.  I  believe  that 
God  took  what  had  been  the  practice  of  the  patriarchs  by 
his  own  appointment  —  mind  you,  by  his  own  teaching  — 


80  SCRIPTUllE    READINGS. 

and  incorporated  the  principles  Ox^  that  practice  in  this  chap- 
ter ;  because  we  find  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  when  Noah 
was  told  to  go  into  the  ark,  God  said,  "  Of  every  clean  beast 
thou  shalt  take  unto  thee  by  sevens ; "  and  every  unclean 
beast  again  by  another  number.  We  thus  see  that  the  dis- 
tinction of  classes  of  animals  existed  then.  Not  that  really 
the  animal  is  unclean;  for  I  may  state  that  the  words 
"  clean  "  and  "  unclean,"  as  we  shall  see  in  the  subsequent 
chapter  that  we  shall  read  upon  the  leprosy,  mean,  to -pro- 
nounce clean  and  unclean. 

Having  seen  that  the  word  "  clean  "  is  used  in  this  sense, 
let  me  proceed  to  the  explanation  of  the  chapter.  It  begins, 
first  of  all,  by  God  speaking  not  only  to  Moses,  as  on  former 
occasions,  alone;  nor  to  Aaron,  as  on  former  occasions, 
alone,  but  to  Moses  and  Aaron  both ;  Moses,  the  representa- 
tive of  the  State ;  Aaron,  the  representative  of  the  priest- 
hood. It  was  a  law,  therefore,  that  was  to  be  binding  alike 
upon  Church  and  State,  upon  priests  and  princes,  upon 
Moses  and  upon  Aaron  both. 

The  classification  that  is  made  here  is  a  most  remarkable 
one.  It  is  not  wholly  an  arbitrary  one;  but  evidently  a 
distinction  originally  inherent  in  the  animal  economy.  It  is 
matter-of-fact  in  nature  itself,  and  it  has  been  remarked  by 
some  eminent  critics  of  the  rationalistic  school,  how  amaz- 
ing that  Moses  should  have  been  so  intimately  acquainted 
with  zoology,  with  ornithology,  and  with  all  the  condition 
and  nature  of  animals,  as  he  shows  himself  to  be  in  this 
chapter !  It  would  indeed  be  a  wonder  —  it  would  be  far 
more  wonderful  than  to  suppose,  what  is  really  the  common 
sense  view  —  that  Moses  did  not  originate  it,  but  was  in- 
spired by  the  Spirit  of  God  to  record  it.  It  requires  a 
great  deal  of  credulity  to  be  an  infidel ;  it  requires  only  a 
good  amount  of  common  sense  to  believe  in  Christianity. 
The  distinctions  that  are  drawn  here  have  lasted  till  now, 
and  are  practically  acted  on.    For  instance,  animals  that  are 


LEVITICUS    XI.  .  81 

called  graminivorous  and  ruminative,  and  lliat  divide  the 
lioof,  are  still  found  to  be  most  wholesome  for  food.  The 
swine,  for  instance,  which  are  what  Moses  would  call  half 
clean,  not  being  ruminative  and  graminivorous,  but  dividing 
the  hoof;  have  flesh  not  so  wholesome  as  the  flesh  of  the 
sheep  and  of  those  animals  that  have  these  requisite  dis- 
tinctions. Hence  among  the  Jews  the  use  of  SAvine's  flesh 
was  forbidden  ;  among  the  Mahometans  it  is  still  forbidden  ; 
in  eastern  nations  it  is  disliked.  The  sceptic  thinks  that 
these  laws  are  old  and  now  obsolete  institutions,  good 
enough  for  the  Jews,  but  not  for  us.  But  what  is  the  fact  ? 
That  the  Jews,  who  adhere  rigidly  to  these  prescriptions, 
who  act  on  the  precautions  that  these  prescriptions  inculcate, 
and  who  exercise  all  the  personal,  and  physical,  and  social 
cleanliness  —  anxious,  scrupulous  cleanliness  —  that  these 
prescriptions  necessitate,  when  epidemic  or  pestilence  visits 
a  land,  generally  escape  in  greatest  proportion ;  while  the 
same  class  of  Gentiles  are  struck  down,  the  corresponding 
class  of  Jews,  it  is  a  remarkable  fact,  generally  escape. 
Mind  you,  I  believe  that  in  copying  the  literal  observances 
of  the  Jews  we  should  do  a  very  wrong  thing  ;  what  I  say 
is  simply  this :  that  they  who  attend  to  those  habits  of 
thorough  cleanliness  inculcated  here  among  the  lower  or- 
ders, which  the  same  class  of  Gentiles  do  not  attend  to,  and 
which  we,  for  want  of  schools  to  instruct  them,  do  not  teach 
them  to  do,  are  generally  most  healthy.  We  have  in  this  a 
very  remarkable  proof  that  these  regulations  and  prescrip- 
tions are  not  useless  or  obsolete,  even  with  regard  to  the 
personal  comfort  and  social  well-being  of  mankind. 

In  the  case  of  fishes  the  definition  is,  that  whatsoever  hath 
"  no  fins  and  scales  "  is  unclean.  The  eel,  therefore,  is  un- 
clean. And  everybody  knows  that  fish  of  that  description 
is  less  wholesome.  So  again  with  respect  to  birds  —  "the 
eagle,  the  ossifrage,  the  ospray,  the  vulture,  the  kite,  the 
stork,  the  owl,"  and  others,  are  unfit  for  human  food.     And 


82  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

the  usages  of  human  nature  are  the  most  emphatic  "  amen  " 
to  the  prescription  in  the  11th  chapter  of  the  Book  of 
Leviticus.  There  is  an  indirect  evidence  that  there  is  a  dis- 
tinction drawn  here  by  one  who  knew  all  the  fowls  of  the 
air,  all  the  fishes  of  the  deep,  and  all  the  cattle  upon  a  thou- 
sand hills. 

It  may  be  remarked,  that  the  beetle,  mentioned  with  the 
locust,  is  not  fit  for  human  food.  But  it  is  e^^ident  from  a 
book  I  have  read,  that  the  original  word  really  means  a  sort 
of  locust,  and  not  the  beetle.  In  the  East  the  locust  is  one 
of  the  choicest  delicacies.  I  know  we  shrink  from  it ;  but 
an  Arab  would  no  doubt,  in  the  same  manner,  shrink  from 
our  shrimps  or  crabs,  and  think  them  very  horrible.  We 
notice  in  all  this,  however,  that  the  great  object  was  not 
simply  to  lay  down  laws  of  universal  obligation  ;  for  I  admit 
at  once  that  this  chapter  is  not  obhgatory  upon  us.  All  I 
assert  is,  that  the  more  we  approximate  to  it  in  the  choice 
of  our  articles  of  food,  the  more  wholesome  those  articles 
will  be  found  to  be ;  and,  therefore,  that  while  in  the  letter 
it  is  not  obligatory,  morally  and  substantially,  it  seems  high- 
ly expedient.  But  the  great  object  of  God  directing  the 
Jews  so  minutely,  was  to  insulate  them  from  every  other 
nation.  But  you  ask.  Why  insulate  the  Jews?  Because 
they  were  a  people  raised  up  by  God  to  be  a  model  nation, 
a  specimen  of  human  nature  sanctified  and  taught  of  God, 
to  be  the  guardians  of  the  sacred  volume  —  to  be  witnesses 
to  the  unity  of  the  Godhead,  and  the  worship  of  the  one 
true,  and  living  God ;  all  flesh  having  corrupted  its  way, 
tliere  was  a  national  election  of  a  peculiar  people,  to  be  the 
guardians  of  truth  amidst  the  universal  darkness.  Now,  it 
was  important  that  this  people  should  be  distinguished,  and 
kept  separate  from  the  rest  of  the  nations  of  the  earth. 
Let  us  see  how  they  were  kept  separate.  The  first  great 
mode  of  intercourse  in  ancient  times,  as  it  is  now,  was  the 
interchange  of  hospitality.     Friends  meet  friends  at  table ; 


LEVITICUS    XI.  83 

SO  they  did  then.  Bnt  the  articles  which  the  Gentiles  ate, 
were  so  different  to  the  articles  which  the  Jew  was  permit- 
ted to  eat,  that  by  the  very  necessity  of  these  laws,  the  Jew 
was  prevented  from  mixing  with  the  Gentiles  to  a  very 
great  extent.  And  as  hospitality  was  then  the  strongest 
seal,  and  stamp,  and  mark  of  confidence,  and  love,  and 
brotherly  aid,  it  was  most  important  that  so  fast  a  tie  should 
not  take  placje  between  the  Jew  that  Avorshipped  the  one 
God,  and  the  Gentile  that  bowed  down  to  idols.  We  see 
similar  effects  at  the  present  day.  It  is  difficult  to  eat 
wdth  a  Mahometan,  or  rather  to  get  a  Mahometan  to  eat 
with  you ;  or  to  eat  with  a  Hindoo,  or  rather  to  get  a  Hin- 
doo to  eat  with  you.  His  dietetic  maxims  may  be  very 
false,  I  admit  they  are  so ;  but  his  dietetic  maxims  keep 
him  separate  from  us.  And  very  probably  it  is  the  dietetic 
maxims  that  prevail  in  the  East  that  have  stereotyped 
Eastern  nations,  and  made  the  Arab  in  the  desert  the  same 
as  he  has  been  from  the  days  w^hen  Abraham  buried  Sarah 
under  the  oaks  of  Mamre.  It  is  their  j^eculiar  social  habits 
that  keep  them  separate,  and  that  originally  made  them  so. 
So  God  designed  to  keep  his  people  separate,  and  I  do  not 
know  a  more  effective  plan  than  that  which  is  employed  in 
this  chapter.  We  have  the  historical  and  actual  effect  of 
mingling  in  rites  of  hospitality  on  the  moral  and  religious 
conduct,  in  Numbers  xxv.  2,  3,  "  The  people  did  eat,  and 
bowed  down  to  their  gods." 

Dr.  Kitto,  in  his  able  edition  of  the  Bible,  called  "  The 
Pictorial  Bible,"  justifies  thus  the  views  which  I  have  here 
laid  down  :  — 

"  The  truth  of  this  observation  must  be  obvious  to  every  per- 
son acquainted  with  the  East,  wdiere,  on  account  of  the  natives 
regarding  as  unclean  many  articles  of  food  and  modes  of  prep- 
aration in  wdiich  Europeans  indulge,  travellers  or  residents 
find  it  impossible  to  associate  intimately  with  conscientious 
Mahommcdans  or  Hindoos.     Nothing  more  effectual  could  be 


84  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

devised  to  keep  one  people  distinct  from  another.  It  causes 
the  difFerence  between  them  to  be  ever  present  to  the  mind, 
touching,  as  it  does,  upon  so  many  points  of  social  and  every 
day  contact ;  and  it  is  therefore  far  more  efficient  in  its  re- 
sults as  a  rule  of  distinction  than  any  difFerence  in  doctrine, 
worship,  or  morals  which  men  could  entertain.  While  the 
writer  of  this  note  was  in  Asia,  he  had  almost  daily  occasion 
to  be  convinced  of  the  incalculable  efficacy  of  such  distinctions 
in  keeping  men  apart  from  strangers.  A  Mahommedan,  for 
instance,  might  be  kind,  liberal,  indulgent ;  but  the  recur- 
rence of  a  meal,  or  any  eating,  threw  him  back  upon  his  own 
distinctive  practices  and  habits,  reminding  him  that  you  were 
an  unclean  person  from  your  habits  of  indulgence  in  foods 
and  drinks  forbidden  to  him,  and  that  his  own  purity  was 
endangered  by  communication  with  you.  Your  own  per- 
ception of  this  feeling  in  him  is  not  to  you  less  painful  and 
discouraging  to  intercourse,  than  its  existence  is  to  him  who 
entertains  it.  It  is  a  mutual  repulsion  continually  operat- 
ing ;  and  its  effect  may  be  estimated  from  the  fact,  that  no 
nation,  in  which  a  distinction  of  meats  was  rigidly  enforced 
as  part  of  a  religious  system,  has  ever  changed  its  religion. 
Oriental  legislators  have  been  generally  aware  of  the  effiict 
of  such  regulations  ;  and  hence  through  most  parts  of  Asia 
we  find  a  religious  distinction  of  meats  in  very  active  oper- 
ation, and  so  arranged  as  to  prevent  social  intercourse  with 
people  of  a  diffiarent  fjiith.  In  the  chapter  before  us  it  is 
not  dillicult  to  discover  that  the  Holy  Ghost  expounded  this 
law.  In  this  vision,  it  will  be  recollected,  the  apostle  saw 
a  great  white  sheet  let  down  to  the  earth,  containing  all  man- 
ner of  four-footed  beasts,  creeping  things,  and  fowls  of  the 
air,  and  heard  at  the  same  time  a  voice  commanding  him, 
notwithstanding  his  scruples,  to  rise,  kill,  and  eat,  for  that 
that  which  God  had  cleansed  was  no  longer  to  be  accounted 
common  or  unclean.  Immediately  after  this  supernatural 
exhibition,  the  apostle  went,  under  the  direction  of  the  Spirit, 


LEVITICUS    XI.  85 

to  the  house  of  Cornelius,  a  devout  Roman,  whom  God  had 
chosen  into  that  Christian  Church  of  which  the  visionary- 
sheet  was  a  figure,  from  its  containing  not  only  those  meats 
prohibited  by  Moses  which  we  usually  eat,  but  also  others, 
of  which  the  flesh  of  dogs  was  one.  "With  regard  to  the 
Arabs,  they  were  nearly  related  to  the  Israelites,  and  their 
practices  were  less  corrupt  than  those  of  the  Egyptians  and 
Canaanites,  whence  the  difference  of  food  is  not  so  strongly 
marked;  but  still  it  was  quite  enough  to  hinder  the  intimacy 
of  the  two  nations.  The  camel  not  only  constitutes  the 
principal  wealth  of  the  Arabs,  but  its  flesh  is  a  2:)rincipal  an- 
imal food  ;  besides  which  they  eat  the  hare,  and  the  jerboa: 
all  these  are  forbidden  in  this  chapter,  the  last  under  the 
name  of  ^  mouse.'  If  even  at  this  distance  of  time  we  can 
discover  such  diflferences  between  the  diet  of  the  Hebrews 
and  that  of  their  neighbors,  we  may  easily  conceive  that  a 
more  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  diet  of  the  latter  would 
exhibit  more  important  and  numerous  distinctions." 

8 


CHAPTER   XII. 


TUB    PURIFICATION    OF    THE   VIRGIN   MARY. 

The  rites  and  ceremonies  laid  down  in  this  chapter,  wliicli 
is  suitable  for  private  rather  than  public  reading,  are  in  no 
respect  obligatory  upon  us.  Its  chief  value  lies  in  the  light 
it  casts  upon  the  Virgin  Mary  at  the  birth  of  our  blessed 
Redeemer.  She  was  so  poor  as  to  be  unable  to  offer  a  lamb 
in  sacrifice.  She  f)resented  what  the  poor,  on  account  of 
their  jDOverty,  might  offer,  two  turtledoves,  or  young  pi- 
geons. "  When  the  days  of  her  purification,  according  to 
the  law  of  Moses,  were  accomplished,  they  brought  him  to 
Jerusalem  to  present  him  to  the  Lord.  As  it  is  written  in 
the  law  of  the  Lord,  Every  male  child  that  openeth  the 
womb,  shall  be  called  holy  to  the  Lord,  and  to  offer  a  sacri- 
fice according  to  that  which  is  said  in  the  law  of  the  Lord, 
a  pair  of  turtledoves  or  two  young  pigeons,"  Luke  ii. 
22-24. 

Woman  needs  to  be  reminded  that  her  chief  and  dis- 
tinctive suffering  is  the  result  of  sin,  and  no  less  to  be  taught 
that  a  great  Sacrifice,  formerly  in  prophecy,  now  in  fact,  has 
been  provided,  in  which  there  is  neither  male  nor  female, 
but  equal  welcome  and  purification  of  soul  for  all  that  flee 
to  Christ  for  forgiveness. 

(86)  -    > 


CHAPTER    XIII. 

THE  LEPER  —  THE  TYPICAL  DISEASE  —  THE  TRIEST  —  HIS  FUNC- 
TION —  MEANING  or  SENTENCE  —  ABSOLUTION  —  PKAYERBOOK 
SERVICE   FOR   SICK. 

There  arc,  unquestionably,  parts  of  the  Bible  that  are 
not  very  instructive  to  us,  especially  if  read  in  their  strictly 
literal  and  historical  application,  or  in  their  primary  refer- 
ence to  the  Jews,  to  whom  alone  they  were  emphatically 
applicable.  Perhaps  this  is  one  of  those  chapters  that  are 
not  interesting  or  instructive  to  a  miscellaneous  congre- 
gation, and,  like  many  other  parts  of  this  book,  it  is,  per- 
haps, more  peculiarly  meant  for  private  and  individual 
study,  than  for  reading  on  public  occasions  and  in  divine 
service.  The  reason  I  have  read  this  chapter  is,  not  merely 
that  it  comes  in  order,  and  therefore  should  be  read,  but, 
that  it  contains  an  account  of  that  chief  and  special  physical 
disease  which  is  regarded  throughout  the  whole  Scripture  as 
the  great  typical  and  significant  disease ;  and  used,  and  con- 
stantly referred  to,  both  in  the  history  of  our  Lord  and  the 
allusions  of  the  apostles,  to  set  forth,  first,  the  universa>ity  of 
sin ;  secondly,  its  contagious  character ;  thirdly,  its  disrup- 
tive power,  separating  the  person  from  all  social  life,  and 
insulating  him  from  all  tlie  reciprocities  and  offices  of  society 
itself.  There  was  this  peculiar  feature,  that  the  man  sus- 
pected of  the  infection  of  leprosy,  (a  disease  suj)posed  to 
have  been  imported  from  Egypt,)  was  not  to  aj^ply  to  the 
physician,  as  was  the  case  with  other  diseases,  but  to  the 


88  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

priest :  not  that  the  priest  could  heal  it  —  for  neither  the 
physician  nor  the  priest  could  heal  it ;  all  that  the  priest 
could  do,  was  to  say,  judging  by  symptoms  and  characteris- 
tic features  that  accompanied  and  marked  the  disease,  "  The 
person  has  leprosy,  or  is  a  leper ;  "  or,  "  The  person  is  not 
a  leper ;  "  or  in  the  language  of  the  chapter,  "  He  shall  pro- 
nounce him  clean,  or  pronounce  him  unclean."  You  will 
find  that  most  or  all  of  those  expressions  that  occur  in 
Scripture,  descriptive  of  the  soul  of  man  by  nature,  are  bor- 
rovred  from  the  disease  described  in  this  chapter.  For 
instance,  Isaiah  says,  "  The  whole  head  is  sick,  the  whole 
heart  is  faint ;  and  from  the  crown  of  the  head  to  the  soles 
of  the  feet  there  is  no  soundness  at  all ; "  language  evidently 
allusive  to  this  very  disease.  In  the  history  of  our  blessed 
Lord  you  remember  the  interesting  instance  of  the  ten 
lepers,  who  "  came  and  stood  afar  oif,  and  they  lifted  up 
their  voices,  and  said,  Jesus,  Master,  have  mercy  on  us. 
And  when  he  saw  them,  he  said.  Go,  show  yourselves  unto 
the  priest."  You  ask,  when  you  read  this  chapter  the  first 
time,  "  Why  should  he  say  so  ?  "  You  can  only  understand 
the  reason  of  it  by  being  acquainted  with  the  facts  in  the 
chapter  I  have  now  read.  "  Go,  show  yourselves  to  the 
priest.  And  it  came  to  pass,  that  as  they  went  they  were 
cleansed."  He  said,  "  Go,  and  ask  the  priest  whether  you 
be  cleansed  or  uncleansed,"  that  is,  whether  the  disease  be 
removed,  or  the  disease  be  there.  "  Whilst  they  were  going 
they  were  cleansed,"  that  is,  they  were  healed.  Now,  as  no 
priest  could  heal  them ;  as  no  earthly  physician,  or  balm  in 
Gilead,  or  prescription  in  Israel,  could  heal  the  disease,  the 
fact  that  Jesus  healed  it  as  they  went  to  ask  the  priests  if 
they  were  healed  or  not,  was  evidence  that  Jesus  was  more 
llian  man,  that  he  was  the  mighty  God,  the  great  High- 
Priest  of  Israel.  And  then,  "one  of  them,  when  he  saw 
that  he  was  cleansed,  turned  back,  and  with  a  loud  voice 
glorified  God  "  —  that  was  the  Saviour.     Now,  Jesus  made 


LEVITICUS    XIII.  89 

tliem  go  and  show  themselves  to  the  priest,  in  order  that 
the  priest,  knowing  previously  that  they  were  lepers,  be- 
cause he  had  pronounced  them  unclean,  and  had  them  sep- 
arated from  society,  might,  when  he  saw  them  return,  a>k 
them,  "  Ye  are  now  clean  ;  who  has  healed  you  ?  "  and  they 
would  say,  "  Jesus  of  Nazareth  healed  us ; "  which  must 
have  proved  that  Jesus  of  Nazareth  was  more  than  man. 
The  leprosy  was  the  great  incurable  disease  that  was  in- 
flicted, it  is  supposed,  by  the  finger  of  God  himself,  and 
could  only  be  removed  by  the  Divine  command,  before 
which  all  disease,  disorder,  and  contamination  pass  away. 

In  the  next  place,  you  will  notice  here  that  there  were  cer- 
tain characteristic  signs  on  the  body,  which  distinguished  and 
discriminated  this  peculiar  malady  from  incidental  diseases, 
to  which  the  human  frame  was  liable  in  every  age ;  and  the 
priest  was  the  only  person  who  had  the  prerogative  or  the 
power  to  distinguish  or  pronounce  clean  or  unclean,  as  the 
symptoms  might  lead  him  to  conclude.  The  words  in  the 
original  Hebrew,  rendered  "  pronounce  clean  or  unclean," 
are  very  remarkable.  They  are  rendered  very  properly  in 
our  translation,  "  He  shall  pronounce  him  unclean,  or  he 
shall  pronounce  him  clean."  But  the  original  Hebrew  word 
is,  literally  translated,  "  The  priest  shall  cleanse  him,  or  the 
priest  shall  uncleanse  him."  This  is  the  literal  translation 
of  the  Hebrew ;  yet  we  see  plainly  that  the  priest  did  not 
cleanse,  but  merely  pronounce,  from  certain  symptoms,  that 
he  was  clean.  He  could  not  uncleanse,  because  the  man  was 
already  a  leper,  and  could  not  be  made  a  leper  again.  It  is 
plain  therefore  that  the  Hebrew  idiom  or  phrase  is  very  prop- 
erly rendered  by  our  translators,  "pronounce  clean,"  and 
"  pronounce  unclean."  Let  us  next  remember,  that  the 
Greek  language  of  the  New  Testament  is  not  the  pure  classic 
Greek  of  the  Attic  writers  but  a  sort  of  Hebraistic  Greek,  or 
tinctured  with  Hebrew  idioms ;  just  as  we  speak  of  English, 
and  Scotch,  or  Irisli  idioms.     Rememboring  this  thought,  you 

8* 


90  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

will  see  the  meaning  of  the  commission  of  our  blessed  Lord 
which  he  gave  to  the  apostles:  —  "  Whosesoever  sins  ye  re- 
mit, they  are  remitted  ;  and  whosesoever  sins  ye  retain,  they 
are  retained."  Our  translators  render  the  Greek  here  liter- 
ally, while  they  have  translated  the  corresponding  Hebrew 
figuratively  ;  and  if  our  translators  had  rendered  the  passage 
in  John  xx.  23,  "  Whosesoever  sins  ye  pronounce  to  be  re- 
mitted "  —  on  data  and  evidence  given  by  the  party  and  the 
sinner  — "  they  are  remitted ;  and  whosesoever  sins  ye  re- 
tain "  —  that  is,  "  pronounce  to  be  retained  "  —  from  the  fruits 
brought  forth  by  the  party,  the  sinner  that  is  brought  before 
you  — "  those  sins  are  retained,"  no  perplexity  would  be 
possible.  If  they  had  translated  the  words  in  this  way,  which 
is  the  true  rendering,  then  the  interpretation,  the  monstrous 
interpretation  based  upon  the  passage  by  the  adherents  or 
advocates  of  the  Romish  Church,  and  those  that  follow 
and  tread  in  their  wake,  would  never  have  been  heard  of; 
and  the  blasphemous  notion  scarcely  have  entered  man's 
mind,  that  a  man  is  to  kneel  before  a  priest,  to  tell  him  the 
innermost  thoughts  of  his  heart,  and  to  receive  from  that 
priest,  not  declarative,  but  judicial,  absolution  pronounced 
on  earth,  and,  as  supposed,  ratified  infallibly  and  certainly 
in  heaven  !  But  you  say,  Then  what  is  meant  by  "  pro- 
nounce forgiven,"  or  "  pronounce  retained  ?  "  I  answer, 
We  are  not  infallible,  nor  do  we  pretend  to  be  so ;  but  we 
proclaim  to  every  human  being  that  such  and  such  are  the 
marks  and  characteristics  of  a  true  Christian,  and  that  by 
these  marks  you  may  know  whether  you  be  a  Christian  or 
not.  For  what  is  it  to  be  a  Christian  ?  It  is  to  have  the 
pardon  of  all  our  sins,  and  the  regeneration  of  our  hearts. 
So  you  may  pronounce  again  from  other  features,  and  pro- 
claim it  as  incontrovertible  truth,  that  by  the  bringing 
forth  of  the  fruits  of  injustice,  of  depravity,  of  wickedness, 
you  give  evidence  that  your  sins  are  not  forgiven,  and  your 
heart  not  renewed.     The  whole  function  of  the  ministry  of 


LEVITICUS    XIII.  dl 

the  gospel  is  declarative  ;  and  the  less  of  the  judicial  in  the 
pronouncements  of  one  who  proclaims  the  unsearchable  riches 
of  Christ,  the  more  scriptural,  as  well  as  pleasant  will  be  the 
result  that  will  follow. 

Here  I  may  mention  another  fact,  —  that  the  so-called 
absolution,  "  I  absolve  thee,"  is  a  form  of  absolution  that  does 
not  occur  in  any  writer,  either  in  the  Eastern  or  Western 
churches,  for  three  centuries.  There  never  was  heard, 
for  three  centuries  at  least  after  the  birth  of  Christ,  an  in- 
stance of  any  one  pronouncing  absolution  in  the  first  per- 
son singular  — "  /  absolve  thee."  It  is  always  in  the 
third  person  singular,  and  is,  "  May  he  be  absolved."  It  is 
never  judicial.  It  is,  "  May  he  be  pardoned  in  the  name  of 
the  Father,  and  of  the  vSon,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost  "  —  than 
which  nothing  can  be  more  proper.  But  you  say.  Does  not 
absolution  by  the  first  person  occur  even  in  a  Protestant  ser- 
vice ?  I  admit  that  it  does.  In  the  Church  of  England 
Prayerbook,  for  the  visitation  of  the  sick,  it  does  occur. 
But  I  am  told  that  that  service  is  not  obligatory ;  that  no 
clergyman  is  compelled  to  say  it.  Explain  it  as  you  like,  I 
think  it  is  a  great  mistake  to  retain  it  if  it  can  be  got  rid  of. 
The  Reformers  thought  that,  by  giving  a  little  here  and  a 
little  there,  they  would  conciliate  the  greatest  number,  and 
do  the  greatest  good.  But  I  am  quite  sure  that  if  those  ex- 
cellent Reformers  had  seen  the  tremendous  superstructure 
that  would  be  built  on  w^hat  they  never  meant  to  be  the  basis 
of  papal  superstition,  they  would,  like  Knox  andthe  Scottish 
Reformers,  have  weeded  out  the  last  remains  of  the  apos- 
tasy —  that  might  be  construed  to  be  so  —  and  so  having 
removed  the  nests,  the  rooks,  in  his  own  terse  language, 
would  never  have  returned  again.  However,  in  that  very 
service,  faulty  as  it  is,  I  may  mention  there  is  a  very  wide 
difference  between  it  and  the  popish  one.  There,  it  is  said 
to  be  declarative;  in  tlie  popish,  it  is  judicial  —  a  wide  dif- 
ference in  this  respect  between  tlie  two.     Secondly,  in  that 


92  SCRIPTUKE   READINGS. 

service  the  party  may  or  may  not  seek  absolution,  but  in  the 
Romish  Church  he  must  seek  it  once  a  year,  or  he  is  excom- 
municated. And  thirdly,  in  that  service  it  is  only  the  sick 
that  can  come  within  reach  of  the  absolution ;  but  m  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church  it  is  obligatory  upon  sick  and  healthy. 
And  the  whole  of  that  service,  defective  as  it  is,  I  admit,  and 
equivocal  as  it  is  apparently,  proceeds  upon  the  supposition 
that  it  is  a  mere  declaration,  to  satisfy  an  earnest  and  scru- 
pulous mind,  and  not  a  judicial  pronouncement  of  absolute 
forgiveness.  However,  we  have  it  plain  in  the  Word  of  God, 
that  forgiving  and  retaining,  or  remitting  and  retaining,  were 
not  judicial  acts,  but  simply  pronouncements,  based  upon 
symptoms  or  upon  data  previously  ascertained;  and  even 
the  priest  that  pronounced  was  not  infallible,  but  might  be 
mistaken. 

And  lastly,  the  high-priest  pronounced  according  to  the 
rules  laid  down  in  God's  Holy  Word.  And  the  Christian 
minister,  if  called  upon  to  speak  at  all,  ought  to  be  guided 
by  that  law,  that  inspired  law,  which  settles  all  controversies 
and  terminates  all  disputes. 

How  humiliating  that  man's  body  should  be  subject  to  such 
diseases !  It  was  never  made  to  be  so.  Sin  entered,  and 
disease,  which  is  only  the  commencement  of  death,  by  sin. 
How  delightful  that  blessed  hope,  that  all  creation  shall  one 
day  be  pronounced,  by  the  true  High-Priest,  no  longer  un- 
clean, but  clean :  all  its  storms  shall  be  laid,  all  its  injuries 
removed,  all  its  ills,  its  aches,  and  its  pains  put  away ;  and 
the  Prince  of  Peace  shall  reign  over  a  world  at  peace  with 
God,  and  over  a  family  at  peace  with  each  other. 


CHAPTER   Xill. 

DISEASE   AND    SIN — EVERY  FACULTY   AND  AFFECTION   INFECTED  — 
INSULATION  OF  SIN — PKIESt's  POWER  —  CIIRIST'S  DUTIES. 

"  And  the  leper  in  wlioni  the  plague  is,  his  clothes  shall  he  rent  and 
his  head  hare,  and  he  shall  put  a  covering  upon  his  upper  lip,  and 
shall  ciy,  Unclean,  unclean."  — Leviticus  xiii.  45. 

"We  have  seen  in  the  course  of  the  long  and  in  some 
degree  uninteresting  chapter  which  we  have  read,  what 
was  the  nature,  the  sign,  and  the  disastrous  issue  of  the 
great  typical  disease,  if  it  remained  unhealed.  I  also  no- 
ticed that  it  is  rcofarded  throuo-hout  the  New  Testament  econ- 
omy,  and  indeed  the  Old  also,  as  the  great  typical  disease  ; 
or  that  special  and  peculiar  disease  incident  to  the  Jews, 
which  was  meant  to  be  symbolical  and  illustrative  of  the 
great  moral  malady  of  sin,  wliich  has  overspread  and  infected 
all  humanity.  It  is  only  by  reading  this  chapter,  uninterest- 
ing as  it  seems  to  us,  that  we  can  understand  many  of  the 
peculiar  phrases  tliat  are  employed  in  the  Psalms,  and  some- 
times in  the  Propliets,  and  occasionally  in  the  Gospels.  This 
great  fact  that  a  disease  in  the  body  was  typical  of  a  ^nalady 
in  the  soul,  reminds  us  at  once  that  there  was  perfect  har- 
mony between  the  body  and  the  soul,  between  things  spir- 
itual and  things  temporal,  between  things  heavenly  and 
things  earthly.  There  is  enough  of  the  harmony  still  sur 
viving  to  show  what  and  how  rich  it  once  was;  there  is 
enough  of  disturbance  introduced  to  indicate  that  some  great 

(93) 


94  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

shall  find  disease  and  sin  constantly  associated,  the  one,  in 
some  shape  or  another,  connected  with  the  other.  Originally 
the  soul  was  made  perfectly  pure,  without  a  fault  or  a  flaw, 
holy  and  happy ;  the  body  was  constituted  its  shrine,  per- 
fectly healthy,  free  from  disease,  and  all  the  signs  and  symp- 
toms of  decay ;  but  sin  was  first  introduced,  and  disease  in- 
stantly followed  in  its  track.  Sin  seems  indeed  to  be  the 
great  substance,  and  disease  to  be  the  shadow,  the  cold  and 
baneful  shadow,  that  everywhere  attends  it.  There  is  no 
explanation  of  the  physical  distempers  that  have  befallen 
humanity,  except  that  which  is  given  in  God's  Holy  Word, 
that  sin  entered,  and  death  by  sin.  Death  is  simply  the  re- 
sult of  disease  —  it  is  not  itself  disease,  but  the  result,  the 
final  result,  of  the  power,  the  poison,  and  the  venom  of  dis- 
ease. And  if  death  was  introduced  by  disease,  we  naturally 
and  necessarily  infer  that  all  ills  and  aches  that  humanity  is 
heir  to  were  introduced  by  sin  also. 

We  find,  in  the  next  place,  that  in  the  Old  Testament 
economy  the  cure  of  bodily  disease  was  almost  invariably 
associated  with  sacrifice.  Wherever  a  disease  was  to  be  re- 
moved from  the  body,  or  a  calamity  averted  from  the  land, 
there  we  find  atoning,  expiatory  sacrifices  were  instituted ; 
and  without  shedding  of  blood,  not  only  was  there  no  re- 
mission of  sins,  but  also  there  was  no  removal  of  disease. 
And  in  the  case  of  our  blessed  Lord,  we  find  the  only  suc- 
cessful Physician,  who  cured  all  diseases,  and  restored  all. 
that  applied  to  him,  was  he  who  came  to  live  a  Priest,  to  die 
a  Sacrifice,  and  to  present  an  atoning  ransom  for  the  sins  as 
well  as  for  the  sorrows  of  mankind. 

The  historical  statement  in  this  chapter  is,  that  the  lep- 
rosy overspread  the  whole  body,  till  it  became,  in  language 
used  by  one  of  the  prophets,  "  white  as  snow ; "  the  whole 
physical  economy  was  infected  ^vith  its  deadly  poison.  And, 
in  that  respect,  it  was  the  type,  and  is  indeed  referred  to  in 
the  New  Testament  as   the   type,  of  that   sin  which   has 


LEVITICUS    XIII.  95 

infected  the  ^vllolc  soul  and  bodj'  of  mankind.  Take  any 
one  flxculty  that  is  within  us,  and  wo  shall  find'  on  it  the 
great  leprosy,  or  taint,  or  moral  influence  of  sin.  Man's 
intellect  is  still  powerful,  but  it  gives  evidence  of  having  ex- 
perienced a  shock.  The  intellect  has  in  it  still  remaining 
energies  that  give  token  of  w^hat  it  once  was ;  but  it  has  iu 
it  also  defects,  and  tremulousness,  and  Aveakness,  and  paraly- 
sis, that  indicate  that  it  is  the  subject  of  some  great  de- 
rangement. The  intellect,  beyond  all  question,  has  shared 
the  consequences  of  Adam's  sin  ;  it  is  enfeebled,  it  is  per- 
verted, it  is  often  crooked  in  its  conclusions ;  and,  like  the 
rest  of  the  inmates  of  the  human  frame,  the  intellect  must 
put  its  hand  upon  its  mouth,  and  its  mouth  in  the  dust,  and 
say  with  the  leper  of  old,  "  Unclean,  unclean." 

I  need  not  attempt  to  prove,  that  the  heart  also  is  defiled. 
Just  as  the  disease  of  Israel  overspread  the  whole  animal 
economy,  so  the  moral  taint  of  transgression,  account  for  its 
introduction  as  you  like,  has  infected  not  only  the  intellect, 
but  the  heart.  Hence,  the  prophet  says,  "  The  Avhole  head 
is  sick,"  —  that  is,  the  intellect  is  infected ;  "  the  wdiole  heart 
is  faint,"  —  that  is,  the  heart  is  also  infected.  And  the  evi- 
dence of  this  is,  that  man  not  only  now  fails  to  love  God 
with  all  the  heart,  as  he  w^as  made  and  meant  originally  to 
do,  but  he  loves  the  creature  often  more  than  the  Creator, 
and  gives  to  the  workmanship  of  God's  hands  the  affection, 
the  esteem,  the  estimation  that  are  the  exclusive  preroga- 
tives and  just  demands  of  God  himself.  The  gold  is  liter- 
ally become  dim,  and  the  fine  gold  is  literally  changed ;  the 
heart  has  lost  its  upward  tendency ;  our  first  love  is  not  to 
God-ward,  our  strongest  affection  is  away  from  him.  We 
constantly  feel  the  things  of  this  world  intruding,  and  de- 
manding and  obtaining  supremacy ;  constantly  striving  for  a 
share,  a  larger  share  than  is  due,  of  that  love  and  affection 
that  we  owe  to  God.  Our  blessed  Lord  gives  the  heart  its 
true  and  fearful  character,  when  he  says, "  Out  of  the  heart 


96  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

proceed  evil  lliouglits,  murder,  adultery,  and  such  like ;  and 
these  are  the  things  that  defile  a  man."  Truly,  therefore, 
and  justly  did  the  Psalmist  pray,  "  Create  in  me  a  clean 
heart,  O  God ;  renew  a  right  spirit  within  me." 

But  not  only  are  the  heart  and  intellect  affected,  as  I  have 
shown  you,  but  the  conscience  also  has  suffered,  and  is 
poisoned  by  the  universal  disease.  The  conscience  is  that 
power  in  every  one  of  us  which  we  feel  better  than  we  can 
define  ;  that  power  within  us  which  tellg  us,  even  weakened 
and  crippled  as  it  is,  "  This  is  wrong,  and  that  is  right ; " 
and  which  adds  to  its  judgment  also  those  feelings  which 
follow  the  conscious  perpetration  of  the  wrong,  and  that 
approbation  that  follows  the  conscious  performance  of  what 
is  right,  and  good,  and  true.  That  mysterious  faculty  or 
power  was  once  the  vicegerent  of  God  in  the  human 
bosom ;  it  was  once  the  oracle  by  which  he  spake ;  and 
Adam,  before  he  fell,  had  not  to  read  God's  will  on  the  sky, 
or  on  the  earth,  or  in  a  book,  but  he  had  to  listen  only  to 
the  promptings  of  the  holy  monitor  within,  to  know  what 
was  the  will  and  the  mind  of  the  Holy  Creator  and  Gov- 
ernor without.  But  the  moment  that  sin  entered,  this  mys- 
terious power,  this  faculty  thaj  so  distinguishes  us  from  the 
lower  creation,  became  powerfully  diseased.  It  now  magni- 
fies immaterial  and  unimj^ortant  things,  and  it  frequently 
disregards  solemn  truth,  and  is  a  seared,  or  a  dead,  or  an 
insensible  conscience.  It  is  sometimes  overflowed  by  guilty 
passions,  it  is  sometimes  silent  when  it  ought  to  rebuke 
them ;  sometimes  quiescent  when  it  ought  to  assert  its  orig- 
inal authority,  and  sometimes  the  democracy  of  the  passions 
rises  in  fierce  array,  dethrones  the  monarch  that  ought  to 
sway  and  govern  them,  and  prompts  man  to  pursue  the 
infatuated  course  that  leads  to  his  ruin.  And  in  the  worst 
of  cases  this  power  of  conscience  is  often  perverted  to  the 
wrong  side,  sanctioning  the  sins  which  it  ought  to  abhor, 
and  siding  with,  or  conniving  at,  acts  which  God  has  con- 


LEVITICUS    XIII.  97 

demned,  and  which  it  knows  in  its  purest  find  best  moments 
to  be  contrary  to  his  holy  hiw.  AVhen  the  intellect  that  dis- 
cerns, the  heart  that  loves  or  hates,  and  the  conscience  that 
testifies  Avhat  is  right  or  wrong,  are  thus  infected,  truly  may 
we  say  with  Isaiah,  "  The  whole  head  is  sick,  the  whole 
heart  is  faint,  and  from  the  crown  of  the  head  to  the  sole  of 
the  foot  there  is  no  soundness  at  all."  "  The  heart  of  man," 
says  Jeremiah,  "is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and  despe- 
rately wicked.  Who  can  know  it  ?  "  That  word  translated 
in  Jeremiah  xvii.  9,  "  Desperately  wicked,"  is  literally,  "  so 
depraved  as  to  be  incurable  by  human  power."  "  The  heart 
of  man  is  deceitful  above  all  things,"  and  so  diseased  as  to 
be  incurable  by  human  power. 

Were  the  tokens  and  the  evidences  of  the  assertion  I 
have  made  not  so  obvious  and  so  numerous  as  they  actually 
are,  you  find  other  proofs  in  the  miser  fixing  his  heart  upon 
gold,  in  spite  of  tlie  decisions  of  intellect,  the  better  impulses 
of  the  heart,  and  the  rebukes  of  conscience.  You  find  the 
drunkard  still  indulging  in  his  cups,  notwithstanding  a  thou- 
sand testimonies  within  and  without,  that  he  is  ruining  soul 
and  body.  You  find  the  Pharisee  robbing  widows'  houses, 
and  making  long  prayers  for  a  pretence.  You  find  the  very 
religion  of  love  and  truth  corrupted  into  the  religion  of  su- 
perstition, of  hate,  and  a  lie.  So  depraved  and  fallen  is  man, 
that  it  looks  that,  if  he  had  the  power,  he  would  turn  re- 
demption itself  into  a  nullity,  or  into  a  curse.  There  is,  then, 
on  all  sides  the  evidence  of  some  great  derangement.  We 
never  can  suppose  we  were  made  so.  Disease  seems  to  us 
natural,  but  it  is  most  unnatural ;  error,  sin,  hate,  all  seem 
jo  us  normal  and  ordinary,  but  they  are  really  altogether  the 
reverse.  We  were  made  holy,  happy,  pure,  immortal ;  and 
if  we  have  become  otherwise,  though  I  cannot  explain  the 
reason  of  it,  it  is  not  God  that  is  to  blame,  but  man  that  has 
sinned,  and  brought  death  by  sin  into  the  world,  and  all  our 
woe. 

9 


98  SCKIPTURE    READINGS. 

We  may  well  ask  with  Job,  at  the  conclusion  of  these  re- 
marks, "  Who  can  bring  a  clean  thing  out  of  an  unclean?" 
And  we  must  answer  w^ith  him,  "  Not  one."  "  Woe  is  me," 
said  Isaiah,  "  for  I  am  a  man  of  unclean  lips."  Abraham 
said  he  was  but  dust  and  ashes.  Job  was  constrained  to  say, 
when  he  saw  himself,  "  I  abhor  myself."  Peter  said,  "  De- 
part fi-om  me :  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  0  Lord."  Paul  said, 
"  I  am  the  chiefest  of  sinners ; "  and  thus  we  find  that  the 
best  of  men  are  they  that  to  themselves  and  to  God  acknowl- 
edge themselves  to  be  the  worst.  The  man  who  is  least 
Christian  will  think  himself  the  most  enlightened  and  the 
best ;  and  he  who  has  most  of  the  light  of  truth  in  his  intel- 
lect, irradiating  his  conscience,  sees  himself  to  be  the  worst 
and  the  chiefest  of  sinners. 

We  find,  on  tracing  the  similitude  between  the  disease 
which  is  here  mentioned,  that  the  leper  had  to  l^^  insulated 
from  the  rest  of  the  world,  and  left  by  himself  to  get  rid  of 
the  disease  that  thus  separated  him.  So  the  sinner,  in  God's 
moral  government,  must  be  for  ever  separated  from  the  com- 
munion and  company  of  the  holy,  if  he  continue  the  subject 
of  this  great  moral  malady  —  sin.  Even  society  itself  is 
obliged  to  shut  up  in  prison  the  violator  of  its  rights,  the 
source  and  author  of  its  disorganization.  And  in  God's 
moral  government  much  more  must  He  separate,  from  the 
fellowshij^  of  the  good  in  heaven,  them  that  are  not  only  de- 
praved themselves,  but  must,  by  the  necessity  of  their  state, 
infect,  deprave,  and  corrupt  others.  Hence  the  abode  of  the 
lost  is  not  a  })lace  so  much  prepared  by  God,  as  a  place  into 
which  the  sinner  necessarily  precipitates  himself.  It  is  the 
very  nature  of  his  being  to  be  detached  from,  and  to  fall  fur- 
ther from  tiie  company  and  communion  of,  the  holy  and  the 
nappy.  Just  as  a  stone  flills  towards  the  centre  of  the  earth, 
a  sinner  falls  downwards  to  ruin.  It  is  his  nature,  it  is  his 
natural  course ;  not  his  original  nature,  but  the  nature  that 
he  now  has  :  infected  by  sin,  and  aggravated  by  sinful  courses 


LEVITICUS    XIII.  99 

he  naturally  and  neces.>^arily  gi'avitates  dowmvards  and  down- 
wards further  and  further  from  God.  And  therefore  the 
sinner,  unless  healed  in  some  way,  like  the  leper  of  old, 
must  be  separated  or  set  apart  from  the  fellowship  of  the 
holy  and  the  happy  forever. 

Tiie  leper's  disease  was  so  bad,  that  it  was  incurable  by 
human  means.  No  human  power  could  cure  it ;  neither 
physician  nor  priest  could  cure  it.  It  is  so  with  sin.  All 
the  waters  of  Damascus  or  Abana  and  Pharpar,  its  rivers, 
cannot  wash  away  sin.  There  is  no  balm  in  Gilead  that 
can  cure  it ;  there  is  no  physician  there  able  to  remove  it ; 
and  human  nature,  left  to  itself,  would  remain  the  victim 
and  the  subject  of  this  deadly  disease  forever  and  forever ; 
and  while  human  nature  seeks  out  many  physicians,  it  dis- 
covers, like  the  woman  of  the  Gospel,  that  instead  of  becom- 
ing better,  it  is  made  worse,  with  the  additional  disadvan- 
tage, that  strength  and  money  are  spent  in  seeking  what  it 
is  unsuccessful  in  finding. 

Like  the  leprosy,  in  the  next  place,  sin  is  contagious. 
The  characteristic  disease  of  the  Israelite  spread  from  per- 
son to  person,  froni  house  to  house,  and  throughout  the 
whole  land.  And  who  needs  to  be  taught  that  "  evil  com- 
munications corrupt  good  manners  ?  "  Who  needs  to  learn 
that  there  is  an  evil  word,  in  a  crooked  course,  a  contagious 
influence  that  is  distilled  upon  susceptible  and  sensitive  and 
living  hearts?  I  believe  every  look  on  the  face,  every 
word  from  the  lips,  every  act  in  the  life,  has  influence ;  and 
when  these  are  depra:ved,  the  influence  is  evil ;  just  as  in 
the  opposite  direction,  when  they  are  good,  the  influence  is 
beneficent  and  good  also.  And  not  only  was  this  typical 
disease  thus  infectious,  but  it  also  infected  houses,  garments, 
robes  —  every  thing  that  the  individual  touched.  Is  not 
that  the  case  with  sin  ?  It  has  infected  the  whole  earth. 
There  is  not  a  flower  that  blooms  so  beautifully  as  it  once 
did ;  there  is  not  a  precious  gem,  or  jewel,  or  mineral  so 


100  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

pure  as  it  once  was.  There  is  nothing  on  earth  that  the 
stain  and  the  taint  of  sin  is  not  on ;  there  is  nothing  with 
which  we  come  into  contact  that  is  not  injured,  weakened, 
deteriorated,  by  the  touch  and  the  communion  of  man.  And 
hence,  says  the  apostle  so  justly,  in  consequence  of  the 
infection  of  the  inhabitant,  the  whole  house  is  in  sorrow  — 
"  the  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain  until 
now,  waiting  for  the  redemption  —  that  is,  the  manifestation 
of  the  sons  of  God."  The  moment  that  the  monarch  fell, 
his  sceptre,  his  crown,  and  his  palace  were  shorn  of  their 
glory,  and  infected  by  his  sin.  The  inhabitant  has  become 
sick,  and  the  whole  house  shares  in  his  malady.  The  soul, 
the  conscience,  the  heart,  the  body,  all  we  are,  have  shared 
in  the  taint  of  Adam's  first  sin,  and  all  that  we  touch  has 
caught  its  contagion  too. 

In  the  ancient  economy,  the  party  to  whom  the  leper  pre- 
sented himself,  was  not  the  physician,  as  in  other  diseases, 
but  the  priest.  And  this  shows  that  it  was  a  disease  in 
some  shape  intimately  associated  with  man's  guilt,  or  with 
sin.  A  Jew  of  old,  like  a  Gentile  now,  if  taken  ill,  applied 
to  the  physician ;  but  when  infected  with  this  great  typical 
disease,  he  did  not  go  to  the  physician,  but  to  the  priest. 
But,  more  than  this,  even  the  priest  could  not  heal  him ;  the 
priest  had  no  prescription  that  could  heal  him,  no  balm  that 
could  remove  it.  All  that  he  could  do  was  to  say,  "  You 
are  healed,"  or  "  You  are  not  healed,"  or  "  You  are  advanc- 
ing towards  convalescence,"  or  the  reverse.  The  priest  was 
to  pronounce  him  clean,  or  to  pronounce  him  unclean.  But 
how  much  better  is  the  economy  under  which  we  live !  Our 
High-Priest  can  not  only  pronounce  us  clean,  but  make  us 
clean ;  he  can  not  only  say,  that  we  are  justified,  but  he  can 
justify  us  by  his  perfect  righteousness,  forgive  us  by  his 
atoning  blood,  by  his  sanctifying  Spirit,  through  his  inspired 
word.  He  can  not  only  say,  "  You  are  clean,"  but  "  Be  ye 
clean ; "  and  we  may  say  to  him,  what  a  leper  could  not  say 


LEVITICUS    XIII.  101 

to  the  priest  of  old,  "  If  thou  wilt,  thou  canst  make  me 
clean."  The  leper  in  the  Gospel  said  so  to  Jesus.  Jesus  . 
made  him  clean.  If  Jesus  had  been  mere  man  he  would 
liave  sanctioned  blasphemy,  in  listening  to  a  leper  saying  to 
him,  what  he  could  not  say  to  the  greatest  or  the  most 
gifted  of  his  nation,  "  If  thou  wilt,  thou  canst  make  me 
clean."  The  high-priest  could  not,  the  priest  could  not, 
Moses  could  not,  Aaron  could  not ;  God  alone  cleansed  the 
leper.  Jesus  was  God ;  therefore  he  accepted  the  attribute 
ascribed  to  him ;  and  he  said,  as  God  alone  could  say,  "  I 
will ;  be  thou  clean."  Now,  in  our  application  to  our  High- 
Priest  for  the  removal  of  this  malady,  we  have,  like  the 
leper  in  the  Gospel,  to  ask  him  to  make  us  clean.  What  he 
requires  of  us  is,  that  we  should  feel,  or  if  we  do  not  feel, 
that  we  should  conclude,  from  the  express  assertion  of  the 
Bible,  that  we  are  morally  diseased;  that  the  incurable 
malady  of  sin  is  upon  us ;  and  that  we  should  go  to  Him 
and  say,  "Unclean,  unclean;"  "If  thou  wilt,  thou  canst 
make  me  clean."  We  are  welcome  to  do  so.  The  priest 
of  old  dared  not  reject  the  leper  that  applied  for  his  judg- 
ment; the  High-Priest  in  heaven  will  not  reject  a  sinner 
that  applies  for  his  cure.  On  the  contrary,  he  says,  "  Look 
unto  me,  all  ye  ends  of  the  earth,  and  be  ye  saved."  "  Come 
unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest."  "  The  whole  need  not  a  physician,  but  they 
that  are  sick."  He  offers  you  perfect  cure ;  he  exacts 
from  you,  as  the  only  return,  the  glory  and  the  praise  of 
having  done  it.  Our  High-Priest,  in  the  next  place,  is  as 
accessible  to  us  as  ever  was  the  priest  to  thp  ancient  Israel- 
ite. He  is  more  so :  the  Jew  had  to  go  up  to  his  temple  — 
to  Mount  Zion,  or  to  Gerizim,  or  to  Jerusalem  ;  but  we  find 
our  Priest  in  all  places  —  present  at  all  times.  The  sigh, 
the  petition,  the  desire  of  the  heart  rise  to  him.  He  bends 
his  ear,  and  listens  to  the  meanest  patient's  prayer.  He 
walks  amid  the  wards  of  this  great  hospital  of  ours;  he 

9* 


102  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

knows  the  case  of  every  patient  that  is  there ;  and  not  one 
who  applies  to  him  for  compassion,  for  a  cure,  for  a  new 
heart,  will  ever  appeal  in  vain.  If  there  be  truth  in  the 
Bible,  this  is  truth. 

If  we  are  not  perfectly  healed,  are  we  in  the  process  of 
being  so  ?  If  we  cannot  say  —  and  I  am  sure  we  cannot 
say  —  that  this  malady  is  removed  from  our  heart,  darkness 
from  the  intellect,  perversity  from  the  conscience  —  if  we 
cannot  say  that,  can  we  say,  at  least,  we  are  patients  of  the 
Great  Physician  ?  Can  we,  at  least,  say  this,  "  We  have 
submitted  our  case  to  him ;  we  have  put  ourselves  in  his 
hands  ? "  You  are  not  called  upon  to  say,  "  I  am  cured, 
holy,  pure,  pardoned,  regenerated,"  though  that  you  may 
hereafter  add,  but  you  are  responsible  for  refusing  to  be  pa- 
tients, seeing  that,  if  never  patients  of  the  Great  Physician, 
you  never  can  be  inmates  of  the  everlasting  rest  and  home 
that  remains  for  the  people  of  God. 

And  if  any  of  you  have  derived  benefit  from  this  Great 
Physician ;  if  you  have  gone  to  him  unclean,  and  are  now 
cleansed ;  if  you  have  gone  to  him  guilty,  and  sought  and 
now  found  pardon ;  if  you  have  gone  to  him  depressed  and 
downcast,  and  found  from  him  peace ;  if  his  Word  has 
cheered  you,  if  the  preaching  of  his  Gospel  has  encour- 
aged you,  if  his  promises  have  comforted  you,  if  his  conso- 
lations have  refreshed  you,  if  he  has  placed  in  your  hearts 
the  indomitable  and  inextinguishable  hopes  of  glory,  through 
his  precious  blood  and  his  glorious  sacrifice,  and  made  you 
love  what  once  you  hated,  and  hate  what  once  you  loved, 
the  least  you  can  do  is  to  praise  the  Great  Physician,  and 
bid  other  sufferers  come  and  share  in  the  remedy  provided. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

CEREMONIES  ON  RECOVERY  OP  THE  LEPER  —  PRIESx'S  OFFICE  — 
ABSOLUTION  —  THE  TWO  BIRDS  —  LEPROSY  IN  A  HOUSE  —  PRAYER 
AND  PAINSTAKING  —  THE  BLESSING  FROM  GOD  AND  MEANS  BY 
MAN. 

In  the  previous  chapter,  which  we  read  last  Lord's  day 
morning,  we  had  the  description  of  the  characteristic  signs 
of  that  disease,  called,  very  justly,  the  great  typical  disease, 
supposed  to  be  the  special  infliction  of  the  hand  of  God, 
and  to  be  cured  or  to  be  put  away,  not  by  the  prescriptions 
of  the  physician,  nor  even  by  the  prayers  of  the  priest,  but 
only  by  the  immediate  power  and  presence  of  God  himself. 
We  find  in  this  chapter  the  description  of  those  ceremonial 
acts  which  were  to  accompany,  or  rather  to  follow,  the 
cleansing  of  the  leper  from  this  great  disease  —  the  type 
and  symbol  of  sin  —  by  which  he  had  been  afllicted.  First 
of  all,  "  he  shall  be  brought  unto  the  priest ;  and  the  priest 
shall  go  forth  out  of  the  camp,"  and  see  him ;  and  then  the 
priest,  when  he  finds  that  he  is  clean,  shall  pronounce  him 
clean.  I  explained  to  you,  in  my  remarks  upon  the  previous 
chapter,  that  "  pronounce  clean,"  and  "  pronounce  unclean," 
are  the  true  meaning,  though  not  the  verbal  translation,  of 
the  Hebrew.  The  Hebrew  is  literally,  "The  priest  shall 
cleanse  him,"  and  "  the  priest  shall  uncleanse  him ; "  but 
you  can  see,  from  the  fact  that  it  was  after  the  leper  was 
healed  that  the  priest  cleansed  him  or  pronounced  him  clean, 
and  therefore  that  this  is  the  true  meaning  of  the  words. 
And  I  showed  you  that  the  words,  "  Whosesoever  sins  ye 

(103) 


104  SCRIPTURE    READINGS.  * 

remit,  they  are  remitted  ;  and  wliosesover  sins  ye  retain, 
they  are  retained,"  are  borrowed  from  this  rite,  and  simply 
declarative,  not  judicial ;  and  as  the  priest  of  old  pronounced 
upon  an  individual  whether  he  was  a  leper  or  not  by  the 
signs  of  the  disease,  as  those  signs  were  delineated  in  the 
only  rule  of  faith  —  the  Bible  —  so  the  minister  of  the  Gos- 
pel now  must  pronounce  an  opinion,  if  he  is  called  upon  to 
jDronounce  at  all,  "  Your  sins  are  forgiven,  or  not,  according 
to  the  fruits  that  you  bring  forth,  the  repentance  that  you 
show,  the  faith  that  you  exercise  ;  "  and  these  are  the  signs 
and  criteria  laid  down,  not  in  traditions,  not  in  councils, 
but  in  the  infallible  and  only  record  —  God's  Holy  Word 
and  Law. 

Next  we  read  that  the  priest  was  to  take  "  two  birds  alive 
and  clean,  and  cedar-wood,  and  scarlet,  and  hyssop :  and 
the  priest  shall  command  that  one  of  the  birds  be  killed  in 
an  earthen  vessel  over  running  water."  Now  it  seems  ab- 
surd to  speak  of  an  earthen  vessel,  and  water  in  it  called 
"running  water."  But  all  the  absurdity  is  taken  away,  when 
we  recollect  that  the  original  is  "  living  water."  It  is  the 
same  expression  that  occurs  in  other  parts  of  Scripture,  "  I 
will  give  unto  him  living  water "  — "  it  shall  be  in  him  a 
well  of  living  water."  And  the  real  meaning  of  this  pas- 
sage is,  "  fresh  water  "  from  the  fountain,  and  not  stagnant, 
and  unfit  for  physical,  or  for  spiritual,  or  for  ecclesiastical 
purposes.  Then  it  has  been  supposed  that  the  one  bird  that 
was  slain  was  meant  to  describe  the  death  of  Clu-ist;  and 
the  dismissal  of  the  other  bird,  after  being  dipped  in  the 
blood  of  the  slain  bird,  was  meant  to  be  a  type  and  pre- 
figuration  of  the  resurrection.  It  is  nowhere  in  Scripture 
said  to  be  so,  but  it  is  obviously  typical  of  sacrifice ;  and  no 
one  sacrifice,  no  one  symbol,  could  set  forth  the  complete- 
ness of  the  work  of  Christ;  and  therefore  many  symbols 
may  have  been  employed  and  combined  to  set  forth  that 
great  and  blessed  act. 


LEVITICUS    XIV.  105 

We  read,  then,  that  the  person,  after  this,  was  still  to  pre- 
sent an  otiering  of  "  two  he-lambs,  without  blemish  ; "  and 
to  remain  at  the  door  of  the  tabernacle  of  the  congregation 
till  the  priest  had  offered  these ;  and  by  this  he  was  to  have 
access  to  the  congregation. 

We  read  that  the  priest  was  to  sprinkle  him  seiwi  times  ; 
that  is,  completely,  the  nmnber  meant  to  denote  perfection. 
He  was  also  to  touch  the  tip  of  his  right  ear,  to  denote  that 
that  ear  should  be  opened  only  to  all  that  was  pure.  He 
was  also  to  touch  the  thumb  of  the  right  hand,  to  teach  that 
every  act  was  to  be  consistent  with  his  character.  And 
upon  the  right  foot,  to  show  that  he  was  to  walk  in  God's 
ways,  which  are  ways  of  pleasantness  and  of  peace.  So 
that  the  man  should  feel  —  what  is  stated  by  the  apostle  in 
Romans  xii.  —  that  he  was  to  present  himself,  soul  and 
body,  a  living  sacrifice,  acceptable  to  God  through  Jesus 
Christ.  Now  the  language  employed  here  —  the  hyssop, 
and  the  cedar-wood,  and  the  sprinkling  —  casts  light  upon 
many  passages  in  the  Psalms,  and  those  passages,  again, 
cast  light  upon  the  phraseology  of  the  New  Testament. 
"  Ye  are  come  unto  the  sprinkling  of  the  blood  of  Jesus." 
We  read  again,  in  another  passage,  of  "  the  sprinkling  of 
his  blood,"  the  "  blood  of  sprinkling."  The  meaning  of  that 
is,  just  as  the  life  of  the  turtledove,  the  lamb,  or  the  bird, 
was  sacrificed  by  the  shedding  of  its  blood,  and  typically 
and  ecclesiastically,  or  Levitically,  virtue  or  qualification 
was  imparted  to  the  person  related  to  it ;  so  the  efficacy  of 
Christ's  death,  represented  by  his  blood  —  that  is,  the  aton- 
ing efficacy  of  it  —  is  to  be  applied  so  to  our  hearts  and 
consciences  that  we  may  have  peace  with  God,  free  pardon 
of  our  sins,  and  the  hopes  of  an  inheritance  among  all  them 
that  are  sanctified. 

Having  seen  then,  first  of  all,  that  the  cleansing  of  the 
leper  was  to  be  associated  with  the  priest,  not  with  the  phy- 
sician ;  secondly,  that  its  removal  was  to  be  accompanied 


106  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

with  sacrifice,  or  the  offering  of  atoning  and  expiatory  vic- 
tims ;  we  learn  from  these  two  facts  alone,  that  that  disease 
was  not  one  of  the  natural  offspring  of  the  Fall,  so  much  as 
the  special  and  significant  infliction  of  God ;  and  meant  to 
lead  that  people  to  learn  the  existence  of  a  greater  malady 
that  has  overspread  the  soul,  and  to  look  forward  to  the  only 
remedy  for  that  malady  —  the  Atonement  which  should  be 
made  in  the  fulness  of  the  times. 

At  the  close  of  the  chapter,  you  have  the  leprosy  in  the 
house ;  and  that  is  spoken  of  as  God's  infliction  entirely  — 
"  When  I  put  the  plague  of  leprosy  in  a  house."  Now, 
notice  what  the  priest  was  to  do.  When  plague,  or  pesti- 
lence, or  war,  or  famine,  come  on  a  land,  there  are  two 
classes  of  persons  who  act  in  opposite  ways.  One  class  Avill 
pray  only  that  God  may  remove  them,  and  do  nothing 
more  ;  another  class  will  set  about  sanitary  reform  —  a  most 
precious  and  important  thing  —  but  they  will  do  nothing 
more.  Now,  we  are  taught  in  this  chapter,  that  the  two 
are  to  be  combined.  The  priest  not  only  applied  to  God, 
and  offered  sacrifices  that  the  plague  might  be  removed 
from  the  house,  but  he  set  to  work  and  pulled  down  the 
stones,  and  broke  the  timbers,  and  scraped  the  house,  and 
had  it  plastered  and  cleansed  ;  and  thus  there  was  the  most 
effective  sanitary  process,  accompanied  with  the  most  sacred 
and  Christian  appeal  to  Him  who  is  the  Lord  and  the  Giver 
of  life ;  and  who  alone  healeth,  and  when  he  healeth  none 
can  make  ill.  Now,  it  is  the  happy  combination  of  these 
that  constitutes  in  all  things  the  perfection  of  Christian  con- 
duct. If  we  so  think  of  means  as  to  think  of  nothing  else, 
we  shall  have  no  blessing ;  if  we  so  think  of,  or  engage  in 
prayer,  as  to  exclude  means,  we  shall  have  no  blessing.  If 
we  suppose  that  by  attending  to  all  that  is  just,  and  proper, 
and  obligatory  in  sanitary  measures,  we  may  defy  God,  we 
blaspheme ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  if  we  act  as  some,  pray, 
and  appoint  days  of  fasting  and  of  prayer,  but  do  nothing  to 


LEVITICUS    XIV.  107 

lift  the  poor  from  tlit'ir  dcgradntion,  to  improve  tlieir  dwell- 
ings, to  inerease  tlieir  comforts,  to  give  raiment  to  the  naked, 
food  to  the  hungry,  a  shelter  and  a  home  to  them  that  have 
none,  then  that  is  downright  hypocrisy.  But  if  we  can 
combine  the  two,  by  using  all  the  means  that  God,  in  his 
providence,  has  given  us,  as  vigorously  as  if  all  depended 
upon  the  means,  and  yet,  while  we  do  so,  look  up  to  God  as 
if  the  means  were  worthless,  and  he  must  do  all,  then  we 
shall  combine  the  blessed  heavenly  benediction  with  the  use 
of  the  most  effective  earthly  means,  and  God,  our  own  God, 
shall  crown  us  with  his  blessing.  Bush  makes  some  excel- 
lent remarks  here :  — 

"Remarks. —  (ver.  2,  3.)  'He  shall  be  brought  unto 
the  priest ;  and  the  priest  shall  go  forth  out  of  the  camp,'  etc. 
The  ministers  of  righteousness  are  to  be  always  ready  to 
meet  the  returning  penitent,  who  would  fain  be  cleansed  from 
the  deiilement  of  sin,  or  who  hopes  he  has  been,  and  wel- 
come him  back  to  the  fold  of  Christ. 

"  (4.)  '  Then  shall  the  priest  command  to  take  for  him,' 
etc.  A  very  remarkable  difierence  marks  the  vast  superi- 
ority of  our  Great  High-Priest  over  the  high-priests  of  the 
Jews.  The  latter,  being  a  mere  man,  and  himself  compassed 
with  iutirmity,  could  not  heal  the  leper  ;  he  could  only  dis- 
cocer  by  inspection  when  he  was  already  healed  by  God,  and 
then  by  his  otfice  declare  this  to  the  people.  He  was  then  to 
perform  the  ceremonies  appointed  for  his  cleansing,  and  thus 
restore  him  again  to  society  and  to  the  privileges  of  God's 
house.  But  the  Lord  Jesus  heals  the  leper.  '  Lord,  if  thou 
wilt  thou  canst  make  me  clean  ;  and  Jesus  put  forth  his  hand, 
and  touched  him,  and  said,  I  will,  be  thou  clean  ;  and  imme- 
diately his  leprosy  departed  from  him,  and  he  was  cleansed.' 
To  this  great  Physician,  then,  let  us  resort,  to  obtain  that 
moral  cleansing  for  which  there  is  neither  cure  nor  relief  in 
any  other  quarter.  Let  us  cry  to  him  as  did  the  leper,  in 
the  day  of  his  flesh,  '  Jesus,  master,  have  mercy  on  us  ! '  and 


108  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

God  himself  shall  acknowledge  and  pronounce  us  clean.  The 
hyssop  is  even  now  ready  wherewith  to  sprinkle  our  souls. 
Let  us  use  it  by  faith,  and  we  shall  experience  with  David 
its  unfailing  efficacy  ;  '  Purge  me  with  hyssop,  and  I  shall  be 
clean  ;  wash  me  and  I  shall  be  whiter  than  snow.'  But  let 
us  be  sprinkled  not  once  or  twice  only,  but  '  seven  times,' 
then  shall  we  be  '  washed  thoroughly  from  our  iniquity,  and 
be  cleansed  from  our  sin.' 

"  (9.)  The  leper  did  not  come  at  once  into  the  camp,  after 
he  had  been  pronounced  clean,  and  sprinkled  according  to 
the  ordinance.  He  was  not  admitted  to  his  tent,  or  restored 
to  society,  till  after  living  in  some  place  alone  for  seven  days 
more  ;  and  then  after  again  washing  his  body  and  his  clothes, 
and  shaving  off  all  his  hair,  even  to  his  eyebrows,  he  was  re- 
instated in  all  his  former  privileges  and  comforts.  This  was 
designed  to  remind  us,  that  the  infection  of  nature,  the  de- 
filing effects  of  sin,  still  remain,  even  in  those  who  are  re- 
generate, and  force  upon  us  the  necessity  of  a  daily  washing 
in  Christ,  in  order  to  our  perfect  cleansing.  It  is  only  in 
heaven  that  we  can  be  pronounced  fully  delivered  from  our 
remaining  corruptions.  But  there  is,  as  it  were,  the  short 
period  of  a  single  week  before  that  event  arrives,  when  wo 
shall  be  introduced  to  our  Father's  house,  to  our  eternal 
home.  The  intervening  time  must  indeed  be  spent  in  hu- 
miliating and  painful  exercises,  but  those  exercises  are  only 
preparing  us  for  the  richer  enjoyment  of  the  promised  bliss. 

"  (14.)  The  application  of  the  blood  and  oil  to  the  ear,  the 
thumb,  and  the  toe  of  the  leper,  seems  to  intimate  that  every 
member  of  the  body,  and  every  faculty  of  the  soul,  needs  a 
special  purification  from  guilt  and  corruption,  and  a  special 
consecration  in  the  renewed  man  to  the  service  of  God. 
The  language  of  the  solemn  rite  was  virtually  this  :  '  Now 
you  are  made  clean,  let  all  your  faculties  and  powers  be  de- 
voted to  the  service  of  God.  Let  your  ears  be  open  to  the 
commands  of  God.     Let  the  work  of  your  hands  be  bestowed 


LEVITICUS    XIV.  109 

upon  the  business  of  your  high  calling,  and  the  accomplish- 
ment of  the  divine  will.  Let  your  footsteps  be  ordered  in 
his  word.' 

"  (15.)  Neither  the  blood  nor  the  oil  was  on  any  account  to 
be  omitted  in  the  purification  of  the  leper ;  nor  can  either  of 
them  be  omitted  in  the  restoration  of  our  souls  to  God. 
The  oil  significantly  shadowed  forth  the  Holy  Ghost  as  a 
Spirit  of  sanctification.  By  the  blood  we  are  justified,  and 
by  the  oil  we  are  sanctified.  And  it  is  worthy  of  remark, 
that  the  order  to  the  leper  was,  that  the  oil  should  be  put 
upon  the  blood  of  the  trespass-offering,  hinting  that  the  blood 
of  Christ  must  j^r^^  be  applied  for  our  justification,  and  that 
then  the  Spu'it  will  be  given  for  our  sanctification." 

10 


CHAPTER    XV. 

[Every  chapter  of  the  Bible  has  its  use  —  its  place — 
and  its  proper  subjects. 

This  chapter  is  not  *suitable  for  congregational  or  family 
reading. 

"  Create  in  us  clean  hearts,  0  Lord ;  and  renew  right 
spirits  within  us."] 

aio) 


CHAPTER    XVI. 

THE  GREAT  DAY  OF  ATOXEMEXT  —  ITS  EXTENT — THE  LONELY  IN- 
TERCESSOR—  THE  ONLY  SACRIFICE  —  THE  PERFECT  SPRINKLING 
—  HIGH-PRIEST  OFFERS  FOR  HIMSELF — TWO  GOATS — INTER- 
PRETATIONS. 

The  following  remarks  form  a  very  just  resume  of  the 
contents  of  this  interesting  chapter :  — 

"  The  proper  place  of  this  chapter,  as  appears  from  v.  1, 
would  have  been  immediately  after  the  tenth ;  but  the  death 
of  Aaron's  two  sons,  for  their  profane  conduct  in  the  dis- 
charge of  their  office  as  priests,  gave  occasion  to  the  enact- 
ment of  the  above-cited  laws  respecting  the  various  unclean- 
nesses  which  disqualified  an  Israelite  for  approaching  the 
sanctuary.  Those  ordinances  having  been  despatched  in  the 
five  preceding  chapters,  the  regular  thread  of  the  sacred  rec- 
ord is  now  resumed,  and  Moses  goes  on  to  give  directions 
concerning  the  great  national  festival  of  atonement  in  its 
various  details. 

"  This  is  called  by  the  sacred  writer  Q'^^lBSn  G^^  yom  hak- 
hijjpurim,  day  of  eocpiations  or  atonements,  and  by  the  mod- 
ern Jews  ^I'D'D  kippur.  It  was  so  called  from  its  having 
been  instituted  for  the  expiation  of  all  the  sins,  irreverences, 
and  pollutions  of  all  the  Israelites,  from  the  highest  priest 
to  the  lowest  people,  committed  by  them  throughout  the  year. 
It  was  observed  on  the  tenth  day  of  the  seventh  month,  or 
Tisri,  corresponding  to  a  part  of  our  September.  It  was 
one  of  the  most  important  and  interesting  days  in  the  whole 
(111) 


112  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

Jewish  calendar ;  and  though  called  occasionally  the  '  feast 
of  expiation/  yet  its  genuine  character  was  rather  that  of  a 
fast  —  a  day  for  '  afflicting  their  souls/  —  and  is  only  called 
*  feast '  in  the  sense  of  a  set  solemnity.  It  is  the  day  alluded 
to,  Acts  xxvii.  9  :  — '  Now  when  much  time  was  spent,  and 
when  sailing  was  now  dangerous,  because  the  fast  was  now  al- 
ready past,  Paul  admonished  them/  etc.  It  was  in  all  its  ser- 
vices and  ceremonies  the  fullest  representation,  the  most  per- 
fect shadow,  of  the  great  work  of  redemption ;  the  high-priest 
prefiguring,  in  all  he  did,  that  which  Christ,  in  the  fulness  of 
times,  was  ordained  to  do.  On  this  account  a  somewhat  mi- 
nute notice  of  the  observances  of  the  day  may  be  proper  in 
this  connection. 

"  Of  so  much  sacredness  was  this  solemnity  regarded,  that 
the  people  began  their  prej^aration  for  it  seven  days  before, 
by  removing  the  high-priest  from  his  own  house  to  a  cham- 
ber in  the  temple,  (after  the  temple  was  built,)  lest  he  should 
contract  such  a  pollution  from  any  of  his  family,  as  might 
incur  a  seven  days'  uncleanness,  and  thereby  unfit  him  for 
performing  his  pontifical  duties.  On  the  third  and  seventh 
of  these  days,  he  was  besprinkled  with  the  ashes  of  the  red 
heifer,  lest  he  might  inadvertently  have  been  defiled  by  a 
dead  body.  On  the  morning  of  the  day  before  that  of  the 
atonement,  they  brought  him  to  the  east  gate  of  the  court  of 
the  Gentiles,  where  they  made  bullocks,  and  rams,  and  lambs 
to  pass  before  him,  that  he  might  be  the  better  able  to  make 
the  proper  selection ;  and  on  every  day  of  the  seven  they 
caused  him  to  sprinkle  the  blood  of  the  daily  sacrifice,  to 
burn  the  parts  of  it  upon  the  altar,  to  offer  the  incense,  and 
to  trim  the  lamps,  that  he  might  be  the  more  familiar  with 
these  offices,  when  called  to  perform  them.  He  was  more- 
over committed,  for  a  part  of  each  of  the  days,  to  some  of 
the  elders  of  the  Sanhedrim,  who  read  to  him  the  rites  of 
the  day  in  order  to  make  sure  of  his  going  rightly  through 
the  rubric.     He  was  then  conducted  into  the  chamber  of  in- 


LEVITICUS    XVI.  113 

cense,  that  he  might  learn  to  handle  the  incense,  and  to  take 
an  oath  as  to  the  mode  of  burning  it  when  he  entered  into 
the  holiest  of  all.  Their  words  on  the  occasion  v/ere  as  fol- 
lows ;  — '  High-priest,  we  are  the  messengers  of  the  Sanhe- 
drim, and  thou  art  our  messenger,  and  that  of  the  Sanhe- 
drim ;  we  adjure  thee  by  Him  that  caused  his  name  to  dwell 
in  this  house,  that  thou  alter  not  any  thing  of  what  we  have 
spoken  unto  thee.'  The  reason  of  this  solemn  adjuration 
was,  that  a  Sadducee,  in  contempt  of  the  written  word,  and 
of  their  traditions,  at  one  time  had  dared  to  kindle  the  in- 
cense without  the  vail,  and  to  carry  it  smoking  within; 
whereas  he  ought  not  to  have  kindled  it  till  within  the  vail. 
During  the  night  that  preceded  the  grand  solemnity,  he  was 
required  to  eat  but  sparingly,  though  he  was  to  fast  the  whole 
of  the  next  day,  for  fear  that  he  might  become  drowsy,  and 
thus  desecrate  in  some  measure  the  services  of  the  day. 
This  entire  night  w^as  spent  in  his  expounding,  or  hearing 
expounded  to  him,  the  written  law. 

"  The  day  having  at  length  arrived,  the  high-priest  laid 
aside  his  ordinary  dress,  bathed  himself  the  first  time,  and 
put  on  the  rich  garments  peculiar  to  his  office.  Habited  with 
these,  he  instantly  went  into  the  court  of  the  priests,  went  to 
the  laver  according  to  priestly  usage,  to  wash  his  hands  and 
his  feet  for  the  first  time;  proceeded  thence  to  the  north 
side  of  the  altar,  to  kill  the  morning  sacrifice ;  ascended  the 
altar  with  the  several  j)ieces,  and  laid  them  on  the  fire  ;  went 
into  the  holy  place  to  trim  the  lamp  and  offer  the  incense  ; 
blessed  the  people  on  the  top  of  the  steps  of  the  porch ;  and 
in  short  did  all  that  belonged  to  the  ordinary  morning  ser- 
vice. 

"  Having  finished  this  part  of  his  duty,  the  next  thing  was 
to  solemnize  his  own  mind  and  the  people's  by  some  previous 
sacrifices.  These,  in  Num.  xxix.  8-11,  are  said  to  be  as  fol- 
lows :  a  bullock,  a  ram,  and  seven  lambs  for  a  burnt-offer- 
ing, with  their  appropriate  meal-offerings ;  and  a  kid  of  the 

10* 


114  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

goats  for  a  sin-ofFering.  When  he  had  finished  these,  he 
washed  his  hands  and  feet  a  second  time  at  the  laver.  He 
then  retired  to  a  particular  chamber  of  the  temple,  and  pro- 
ceeded to  strip  himself  of  his  rich  habiliments,  to  bathe  him- 
self in  water  a  second  time,  and  to  put  on  his  plain  white 
linen  vestments,  the  same  dress  as  that  worn  by  the  common 
priests,  except  that  he  had  the  sacerdotal  mitre  on  his  head. 
Thus  attired,  he  proceeded  to  the  work  of  sacrifice.  Going 
up  to  the  bullock,  and  standing  with  his  face  towards  the 
temple,  he  laid  both  his  hands  on  the  head  of  the  animal, 
and  solemnly  pronounced  the  following  words  :  '  0  Lord,  I 
have  sinned,  done  perversely,  and  transgressed  before  thee, 
I  and  my  house.  I  beseech  thee,  O  Lord,  expiate  the  sins, 
perversities,  and  transgressions  whereby  I  have  sinned,  done 
perversely,  and  transgressed,  I  and  my  house,  as  it  is  written 
in  the  law  of  Moses,  thy  servant,  saying.  For  in  this  day  he 
will  expiate  for  you,  to  purge  you  from  all  your  sins  before 
the  Lord,  that  ye  may  be  clean ; '  referring  to  v.  30,  where 
these  words  are  to  be  found. 

"Having  made  this  confession,  he  went  to  the  north- 
east corner  of  the  court,  where  the  two  kids  of  the 
goats,  intended  for  the  congregation,  were  ordained  to 
stand.  There  he  cast  lots  for  the  two  goats,  by  means  of 
two  pieces  of  gold,  put  into  a  box  called  'i&bp  helphi,  on  one 
of  which  was  written  mn"^^  laihovah,  for  the  Lord,  and  on 
the  other  btittJib  le-azazel,  for  Azazel,  rendered  in  our  ver- 
sion, '  for  the  scape-goat,'  in  relation  to  which  an  extended 
discussion  will  be  found  in  the  ensuing  notes.  He  then  pro- 
ceeded to  slay  the  bullock  for  his  own  sins,  and  the  goat 
upon  which  the  lot  had  fallen  to  be  sacrificed  to  the  Lord ; 
after  which  he  filled  a  censer  with  burning  coals  from  the 
altar,  and  putting  two  handfuls  of  incense  into  a  vase,  he 
bore  them  into  the  holy  of  holies.  Having  here  poured  the 
incense  upon  the  coals,  he  returned,  took  the  blood  of  the 
bullock  and  the  goat,  and  went  again  into  the  most  holy 


LEVITICUS    XVI.  115 

place.  With  his  finger  he  first  sprinkled  the  blood  of  the 
bullock,  and  afterwards  of  the  goat,  upon  the  lid  of  the  ark 
of  the  covenant,  and  seven  times  also  he  sprinkled  it  upon 
tlie  floor  before  the  ark.  He  then  returned  from  the  most 
holy  into  the  holy  place,  and  besmeared  the  horns  of  the 
golden  altar  with  the  blood  of  the  bullock  and  the  goat, 
and  jetted  the  blood  seven  times  over  the  surface  of  the 
altar. 

"  The  next  duty  of  the  high-priest  was  to  make  an  atone- 
ment for  the  holy  place,  for  the  tabernacle,  and  for  the  altar. 
This  was  done  by  sprinkling  the  blood  of  the  bullock  and 
the  blood  of  the  goat,  each  right  before  the  vail,  and  then 
by  mingling  them  together,  and  sprinkling  the  horns  and 
the  body  of  the  golden  altar  of  incense. 

"  We  are  now  come,  in  the  order  of  the  ceremonies,  to 
the  scape-goat,  which  was  to  be  sent  away  into  the  wilder- 
ness. To  this  animal,  as  he  stood  in  the  court  of  the  priests, 
the  high-priest  approached,  and  laying  both  hands  upon  its 
head,  which  was  bound  around  with  a  scarlet  thread,  made 
over  it  a  solemn  confession  of  the  sins  of  the  people  of 
Israel,  after  which  it  was  consigned  to  the  hands  of  a  per- 
son especially  appointed  to  conduct  it  to  some  desert  and 
desolate  region,  where  it  was  allowed  an  unmolested  escape. 
The  mystical  or  typical  design  of  this  transaction  will  be 
found  fully  considered  in  a  subsequent  note.  The  Jewish 
writers  detail  a  multitude  of  additional  ceremonies  con- 
nected with  the  dismission  of  the  scape-goat,  but  as  they 
are  obviously  of  a  fabulous  cast,  we  waive  entirely  the  reci- 
tal of  them. 

"  After  the  sending  away  of  tlie  emissary-goat,  the  high- 
priest  put  off  his  white  vestments,  and  assuming  his  splen- 
did robes,  sacrificed  a  holocaust  for  himself  and  the  people, 
and  then  offered  another  sin-offering.  The  Jews  assert  that 
he  then  went  a  third  time  into  the  holy  of  holies  for  the  pur- 
pose of  bringing  away  the  censer ;  but  this  is  not  certain,  as 


116  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

he  might  have  taken  it  when  he  returned  the  second  time  for 
the  blood.  However  this  may  be,  he  proceeded  afterwards 
to  wash  his  hands  and  feet  at  the  laver,  after  which  he  went 
to  the  dressing-chamber,  that  he  might  lay  aside  his  linen 
suit,  bathe  himself  for  the  last  time,  and  resume  his  rich 
official  dress,  in  which  to  offer  the  evening  incense  and  trim 
the  lamps  on  the  golden  candlestick.  All  this  done,  he 
washed  his  hands  and  feet  at  the  laver  for  the  last  time ; 
and  went  to  the  dressing-chamber ;  laid  aside  his  rich  attire ; 
resumed  his  ordinary  wearing  apparel;  and  retired  to  his 
own  house,  accompanied  by  the  multitude,  rejoicing  that 
God  had  not  mingled  his  blood  with  his  sacrifice." 

This  chapter  describes  the  most  solemn  and  impressive 
ceremonial  in  all  the  ritual  of  Levi  —  namely,  the  transac- 
tions on  the  great  day  of  Atonement,  celebrated  in  the 
month  of  September,  once  a  year.  It  seems  to  have  been 
a  sort  of  recapitulation  or  condensation  of  all  the  sacrifices 
of  previous  months,  and  to  be  an  atoning,  or  purifying  of 
the  temple,  the  altar,  the  priests,  the  people,  and  of  all  the 
sacrifices  connected  therewith. 

The  high-priest  was  first  of  all  to  make  sacrifice  without 
in  his  usual  robes ;  but  when  he  went  into  the  holy  place 
beyond  the  vail,  which  was  the  type  of  heaven,  that  Christ 
has  now  entered  for  us,  he  put  on  the  simple  linen  robes  of 
the  ordinary  priest ;  as  if  to  show  how  utterly  unworthy  he 
was  to  appear  before  Him  whose  eye  is  purer  than  to  behold 
transgression.  When  he  went  there  he  was  alone.  No 
priest,  or  king,  or  member  of  the  Church  of  Israel  must  be 
with  him.  This  was  fulfilled  when  Christ  entered  into 
heaven,  the  true  holy  place,  alone  making  intercession  for 
us.  And  as  no  priest  might  go  with  the  high-priest  into  the 
typical  holy  of  hohes  to  help  him  to  intercede  for  the  peo- 
ple, so  no  saint  or  angel  can  now  take  part  in  Christ's  inter- 
cession in  the  true  holy  of  holies.  He  liveth  alone  to  make 
intercession  for  the  people. 


LEVITICUS    XVI.  117 

And  secondly,  on  this  day  the  high-priest  alone  made  the 
atonement,  presented  the  sacrifice,  and  was  the  conspicuous 
and  acting  official  in  its  great  and  solemn  transactions.  So 
Jesus,  when  he  made  an  atonement  for  the  sins  of  all  that 
believe,  did  it  alone.  No  one  shared  in  his  sorrows ;  none 
must  therefore  share  in  his  glory.  Of  the  people  there  was 
none  with  him ;  he  trod  the  wine-press  alone ;  and  when  the 
virgin  mother  offered  her  aid  by  giving  her  counsel,  he 
meekly  but  firmly  repelled  her  —  "  Woman,  what  have  I  to 
do  with  thee ? "  "I  must  tread  the  wine-press  alone.  This 
is  the  great  day  of  atonement  for  a  world  ;  and  not  even  a 
mother's  tears  must  mingle  with  the  atoning  blood  of  the 
Incarnate  and  suffering  Son." 

You  will  notice,  in  the  next  place,  that  the  priest  had  to 
sprinkle  the  sacrificial  blood  with  his  finger  seven  times. 
The  number  seven  simply  denotes  in  the  Word  of  God  per- 
fection. The  seven  Spirits,  the  one  Holy  Spirit ;  the  seven 
Churches,  the  one  Catholic  Church ;  the  seven  times  —  that 
is,  perfectly,  completely.  You  will  notice,  in  the  next  place, 
that  the  high-priest  here  had  to  make  an  atonement  first  for 
himself,  then  for  his  household,  then  for  all  the  congregation 
of  Israel.  Here  the  type  fails  to  embody  and  set  forth  the 
antitype;  because  Christ  needed  not  to  offer  first  for  him- 
self, and  then  for  the  people,  in  that  he  was  holy,  harmless, 
undefiled,  and  separate  from  sinners.  But  the  high-j^riest 
was  a  sinner ;  as  a  sinner  he  needed  an  atonement  for  him- 
self; an  imperfect  type  setting  forth  a  perfect  and  a  spotless 
Saviour. 

The  most  interesting  feature,  perhaps,  in  the  chapter  I 
have  read,  is  the  type  or  symbol  of  the  two  goats.  There 
have  been  disputes  about  the  just  interpretation  of  this.  I 
may  state  that  Faber,  a  very  acute  and  able  critic  upon 
Leviticus,  thinks  that  the  one  goat  was  sacrificed  for  sin  — 
representing  Christ's  death ;  that  the  scape-goat  was  dedi- 
cated to  the  evil  spirit  —  representing  Christ  put  into  the 


118  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

power  of  isatan  to  be  tempted  in  the  wilderness.  The 
reason  that  he  thinks  so  is,  that  the  word  for  goat  of  "  scape" 
is  azazel ;  and  that  name  was  apphed  to  the  fallen  spirit  by 
the  Jews.  And,  therefore,  Faber  thinks  it  was  one  goat  for 
a  sacrifice  —  to  denote  Christ's  atonement ;  the  other  goat 
let  loose  to  Satan,  or  sent  away  to  Satan  —  to  represent  the 
Saviour  given  up  into  the  hands  of  the  wicked  one  to  be 
tempted  for  a  season. 

The  second  interpretation  is  by  Bush,  the  American  com- 
mentator, a  man  of  great  sagacity  and  talent,  and  he  thinks 
that  the  one  goat  that  was  slain  as  a  sacrifice,  represented 
Christ's  atonement  for  us  ;  but  that  the  other  goat  repre- 
sented the  Jewish  races  let  loose,  bearing  the  fearful  respon- 
sibility of  having  trodden  underfoot  the  precious  blood  of 
Christ,  and  crucified  the  Son  of  God,  and  stained  their  name 
and  their  nation  with  the  infamy  of  that  crime :  and  that 
they,  a  blasted  race,  driven  into  the  desert,  were  represented 
by  the  scape-goat  that  was  here  let  go.  And  he  thinks  on 
the  same  ground,  that  when  the  lots  were  cast,  and  Jesus 
was  condemned,  and  Barabbas  was  let  go,  that  that  was  the 
carrying  out  of  the  same  gi'eat  symbol  —  Barabbas,  the 
representative  of  the  Jews,  let  go ;  but  branded  with  an  in- 
expiable crime ;  and  Jesus,  the  Great  Atonement,  sacrificed 
for  the  sins  of  all  that  believe.  These  criticisms,  however, 
are  more  plausible  than  true.  I  do  think  the  old-fashioned 
interpretation  is  the  just  one,  and  there  is  no  valid  reason 
for  superseding  it ;  that  the  one  goat  sacrificed  on  the  altar, 
was  the  symbol  of  Christ  our  Saviour  or  Atonement  sacri- 
ficed for  us ;  and  that  the  other  goat  let  loose  into  the  desert, 
was  the  symbol  and  representation  to  the  children  of  Israel 
of  Jesus  rising  from  the  dead,  bearing  the  sins  that  he  had 
exhausted,  entering  into  heaven,  and  there  ever  living  to 
make  intercession  for  us.  I  know  there  are  difficulties  even 
in  accepting  the  last  of  these ;  but  those  difficulties,  if  they 
do  not  completely  vanish,  are  much  diluted  when  you  notice 


LEVITICUS    XVI.  119 

the  accompaniments  or  the  rites  by  wliich  tliis  goat  Avas  let 
loose  into  the  Avilderness :  that  the  jjriest  was  to  lay  his 
hands  upon  the  head  of  the  scape-goat  —  the  one  that  was 
presented  alive  —  over  it  he  was  to  confess  all  the  sins  of 
the  children  of  Israel ;  and  then  this  scape-goat  was  let 
loose,  with  the  sins  of  Israel  upon  its  head.  Now,  tlie  very 
phraseology  that  is  applied  to  the  scape-goat,  is  applied  to 
Jesus.  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  "  — 
that  carrieth  away  —  "  the  sins  of  the  world."  And  I  can- 
not conceive  a  more  beautiful  type  of  Christ  our  Saviour,  or 
a  more  expressive  exhibition  of  the  mode  in  v>fhich  we  be- 
come interested  in  him  than  that  of  the  high-priest  laying 
his  hand  upon  its  head,  transferring  the  sins  of  Israel  to  it, 
dismissing  it,  and  the  sins  blotted  out,  no  more  remembered, 
carried  into  a  desert,  passed  away  from  the  reminiscences 
of  Israel  and  of  God  forever. 

So  the  believer  lays  not  his  literal  hand,  but  the  trust  of 
his  soul,  not  on  a  literal  head,  but  on  Christ,  his  atonement 
and  his  sacrifice ;  and  his  sins  are  put  away,  and  he  enters 
into  the  blessedness  of  that  man  whose  sins  are  forgiven, 
whose  iniquities  are  blotted  out,  and  to  whom  the  Lord  im- 
puteth  no  transgression. 


CHAPTER    XVII. 

No  sacrifices  were  to  be  offered  save  in  the  appointed 
place. 

No  sacrifices  were  to  be  offered  to  lieathen  gods. 

The  blood,  or  the  life  of  the  animal,  the  type  of  the  blood 
of  Jesus,  was  not  to  be  eaten.     It  was  a  lesson,  not  food. 

(120) 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

This  chapter  derives  its  importance  from  discussion  on 
the  lawfulness  of  marrying  a  deceased  wife's  sister.  I  add 
Bush's  judicious  remarks  :  — 

"  As  the  chosen  and  covenant  tribes  of  Israel  were  soon 
to  take  up  their  journey  to  the  land  of  Canaan,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  Avhich  were  to  be  exterminated  for  their  multifa- 
rious iniquities  in  the  sight  of  God,  a  recital  is  here  made 
of  some  of  those  aggravated  forms  of  wickedness  w^hich 
were  rife  among  them,  and  which  God  had  determined  sig- 
nally to  punish.  This  is  done  not  only  to  illustrate  the  jus- 
tice of  the  divine  proceedings  in  their  excision,  but  also 
with  a  view  to  put  the  peculiar  people  themselves  on  their 
guard  against  yielding  to  the  contagion  of  their  pernicious 
example,  and  thus  becoming  obnoxious  to  the  same  fearful 
retributions  which  were  now  about  to  be  visited  upon  the 
Canaanites.  The  particular  class  of  abominations  more 
especially  pointed  out  in  this  chapter,  and  to  which  the 
brand  mark  of  the  divine  reprobation  is  so  conspicuously 
affixed,  is  that  of  incestuous  connections.  Not  only  had  that 
abandoned  race  been  guilty  of  a  total  apostasy  from  the 
worship  of  the  true  God,  substituting  in  his  room  the  sun 
and  moon  and  host  of  heaven,  and  bowing  down  to  stocks 
and  stones  and  creeping  things,  but  they  had  mingled  w^ith 
their  idolatry  every  vice  that  could  degrade  human  nature 
and  pollute  society.  In  the  black  catalogue  of  these,  the 
abominations  of  lust  stand  preeminent ;  and  whether  in  the 
form  of  adultery,  fornication,  incest,  sodomy,  or  bestiality, 
11  (121) 


122  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

tliey  had  now  risen  to  a  pitch  of  enormity  Avhich  the  forbear- 
ance of  Heaven  could  tolerate  no  longer,  and  of  which  a 
shuddering  dread  was  to  be  begotten  in  the  minds  of  the 
people  of  the  covenant.  And  in  order  that  no  possible  plea 
of  ignorance  or  uncertainty  might  be  left  in  their  minds  as 
to  those  connections  which  were  lawful  and  those  which 
were  forbidden,  the  Most  High  proceeds  in  the  present  and 
in  the  20th  chapter  to  lay  down  a  number  of  specific  pro- 
hibitions on  this  subject,  so  framed,  as  not  only  to  include 
the  extra-nuptial  pollutions,  which  had  prevailed  among 
the  heathen,  but  also  all  those  incestuous  unions  which 
were  inconsistent  with  the  purity  and  sanctity  of  the  mar- 
riage relation.  Both  classes  of  crimes  we  think  are  in 
fact  included ;  so  that  it  is  doing  no  violence  to  the  spirit 
of  the  text  to  regard  it  as  containing  a  system  of  marriage 
laws  by  which  the  peculiar  peoj)le  were  ever  after  to  be 
governed. 

"  As  this  is  the  only  passage  in  the  compass  of  the  whole 
Bible  where  any  formal  enactments  are  given  on  this  subject, 
this  and  the  connected  chapters  treating  of  this  theme  have 
always  been  deemed  of  peculiar  importance  in  their  relations 
to  the  question  of  the  lawful  degrees,  within  which  the  mar- 
riage connection  may  now  be  formed  by  those  who  make 
the  law  of  God  the  great  standard  of  moral  duty.  But  it 
is  more  especially  with  reference  to  the  lawfulness  of  mar- 
riage with  a  deceased  ivife's  sister  that  the  bearings  of  this 
chapter  become  important  to  us  under  the  gospel,  and  at  the 
present  time;  as  it  is  well  known  that  the  occurrence  of 
cases  of  that  kind  has  often  greatly  agitated  the  religious 
communions  to  which  the  parties  belonged,  and  even  at  the 
present  day,  the  difficulty  of  effiscting  an  entire  unanimity  of 
sentiment  among  Christians  appears  as  great  as  ever.  We 
can  scarcely  expect,  indeed,  within  the  limits  which  the  na- 
ture of  the  present  work  will  allow,  to  bring  the  matter  to  a 
decisive  issue,  even  if  we  were  entirely  confident  on  which 


LEVITICUS    XVIII.  123 

side  tlie  truth  lay,  which  wc  arc  forced  to  acknowledge  we 
are  not.  Tiie  just  decision  of  the  question  necessarily  in- 
volves the  establishment  of  several  great  preliminary  prin- 
ciples of  interpretation,  besides  a  display  of  the  idiomatic 
usages  of  the  Hebrew  pliilologically  exhibited,  v>diich  cannot 
w^ell  be  made  satisfactory  in  a  small  compass.  But  as  the 
subject  is  one  on  which  the  truth  is  perhaps  to  be  reached 
only  by  the  gradual  accumulation  of  evidence,  we  venture 
with  others  to  contribute  our  small  quota  of  suggestion  to- 
wards the  solution  of  a  very  important  point,  not  of  criticism 
only,  but  also  of  casuistry. 

"  It  will  probably  be  seen  that  our  leanings  are  to  the  side 
of  the  unlawfulness  of  the  connection  ;  but  recent  discussions 
have  brought  forth  so  strong  an  array  of  arguments  in  sup- 
port of  the  opposite  theory,  that  it  seems,  on  the  whole,  no 
more  than  is  due  to  the  presentation  of  evidence  on  both 
sides,  that  w^e  should  at  jH-esent  liold  our  judgment  in  sus- 
pense, simply  giving  to  the  reader  a  succinct  but  faithfiul 
view  of  the  principal  reasonings  relied  upon  by  the  advo- 
cates of  each." 


CHAPTER    XIX. 

A  CODE  of  moral  ancl  positive  laws,  replete  with  wisdom, 
—  inculcating  reverence  to  parents,  gleanings  to  be  left  for 
the  poor,  forbidding  stealing,  or  taking  advantage  of  the  deaf 
and  blind,  tale-bqaring,  uncharitableness,  revenge,  profana- 
tion of  the  Sabbath,  consulting  wizards,  and  oppression  of  the 
stranger. 

(124) 


CHAPTER    XX 


PARTS   OF    SCRirXUKE   OBSCURE    YET    IMPORTANT — GODS   PEOPLE  A 
nOLY  PEOPLE  —  MEANING  OF  THE  WORD  —  WHAT  IT  INVOLVES. 

From  this  chapter,  which  is  not  suitable  for  public  or 
domestic  reading,  I  select  for  study  a  single  passage :  verse 
26:  — 

"And  ye  shall  be   holy  unto  me:  fori  the  Lord  am  holy,  and  have 
severed  you  from  other  people,  that  ye  should  be  mine." 

This  is  the  summary  and  the  embodiment  of  all  of  those 
peculiar  laws  among  the  ancient  Hebrews,  laid  down  in  the 
chapters  which  it  is  not  necessary  or  profitable  to  read  in 
public  worship.  There  is  a  design  in  all  God's  institutions, 
though  we  cannot  always  see  that  design ;  and  an  object  that 
he  has  before  him  in  every  thing  he  enacts,  however  pecu- 
liar or  even  trivial,  it  may  appear  to  us.  Because  we  can- 
not see  the  use  of  every  peg  in  complicated  machinery,  it 
does  not  follow  that  it  is  of  no  use  ;  instead  of  rashly  pro- 
nouncing on  the  machine,  that  this  is  useless  in  it,  because 
we  cannot  understand  it,  we  should  rather  meekly  pronounce 
on  our  own  folly,  and  say,  We  are  not  enlightened  enough 
to  see  it.  So  many  of  the  institutions  of  Levi  seem  to  us 
unnecessary ;  some  of  them  would  seem  better  to  have  been 
omitted  ;  but  you  may  depend  upon  it  that  all  of  them  had  a, 
definite  design,  served  a  purpose  that  has  passed,  or  serve 
in  some  shape  or  purpose  that  does  still  exist,  or  will  serve 
an  end  that  has  not  yet  come  within  the  horizon  of  our  view. 

11*  (125) 


12G  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

All  these  several  institutions  in  that  ancient  economy  had 
one  great  design  Avhich  we  can  understand  —  to  insulate  the 
Jewish  people  from  the  rest  of  mankind  ;  to  select,  as  it 
were,  a  fragment  of  humanity,  to  place  it  in  the  fairest  sun- 
shine, under  the  best  social,  ecclesiastical,  and  political  cir- 
cumstances ;  to  hedge  it  round  with  ceremonies  and  rites, 
that  should  keep  it  distinct  and  separate  from  the  rest  of  the 
nations  of  the  earth  ;  and  to  try,  on  a  grand  scale,  what  man 
would  be  with  all  these  aids,  and  assistances,  and  promises, 
and  encouragements,  and  rites,  and  ceremonies ;  and  the  re- 
sult was,  that  the  old  trait  came  out  in  sunshine,  as  it  had  in 
shadow.  "  Man's  heart  is  deceitful  above  all  things,  and 
desperately  wicked.  Who  can  know  it  ?  "  Now  the  laws, 
the  various  laws  which  the  Jews  received  from  God  through 
the  medium  of  Moses,  Avere  all  meant  to  promote  social,  per- 
sonal, political,  national  morality;  to  keep  the  people  dis- 
tinct from  infecting  elements  around  them,  separated  and 
hedged  off  from  the  possibility  of  contagion ;  so  that  what- 
ever defiled  them  might  be  seen  not  to  come  from  others,  but 
to  rise  from  the  depths  of  their  own  fallen  and  depraved 
hearts.  "  Therefore  I  have  separated  you  from  all  people, 
that  ye  might  be  unto  me,"  he  says,  "  a  peculiar  people ; " 
and  the  great  end  that  he  contemplated  constantly  was  their 
holiness  —  that  they  might  be  a  holy  people.  The  word 
"  holy,"  in  fact,  means  properly,  separated,  set  apart  to  some 
purpose,  or  object,  or  end.  But  in  order  to  make  their  holi- 
ness still  more  likely,  he  presented  ever  before  them  a  grand 
model.  "  Be  ye  holy,"  is  his  constant  phrase,  "  for  I  the 
Lord  am  holy."  "  Ye  shall  be  holy  unto  me,  for  I  the  Lord 
am  holy."  It  is  well  known  that  a  people  become,  to  a  great 
extent,  what  their  god  or  their  gods  are.  The  gods  of  the 
heathen  were  most  of  them  monsters  of  lust.  Jupiter  was 
depraved ;  Mercury  was  a  thief ;  others  of  their  gods  were 
infected  with  the  greatest  crimes  ;  as  if  their  villany  upon 
earth  gave  them  a  title  to  a  niche  in  the  Pantheon  of  hea- 


LEVITICUS   XX.  127 

thenism.  You  must  expect,  from  sucli  gods  in  the  theology 
of  a  people,  bad  lives  in  the  history  of  that  people.  If  the 
model  be  so  bad,  how  low  must  the  imitator  and  the  wor- 
shipper be  !  —  But  before  the  Jews  there  was  placed  the 
magnificent  ideal  of  all  that  was  holy,  pure,  just,  perfect; 
the  nearer  they  approached  God,  the  nobler  they  became ; 
the  further  they  receded  from  him,  the  more  degenerate  they 
became.  They  had  the  standard  infinitely  remote,  but  in- 
finitely perfect ;  ceaseless  approximation  to  which  was  their 
nation's  strength,  its  glory,  and  its  happiness.  Thus  the 
Jews  were  selected  that  they  might  be  holy.  They  had  a 
model  constantly  before  theip  they  were  to  imitate,  that  they 
might  be  holy.  And  they  were  chosen  for  this  grand  des- 
tiny, not  because  of  their  own  virtues  —  for  strange  enough, 
their  very  mercies,  the  corruption  of  their  hearts  turned  into 
their  own  merits ;  and  the  more  God  favored  them,  with  a 
perverse  ingenuity  the  most  remarkable,  when  we  know  it 
was  so  often  rebuked,  the  more  credit  they  took  to  themselves. 
Instead  of  being  more  humbled  by  a  sense  of  what  they  de- 
served, and  more  thankful  for  the  enjoyment  of  what  they 
got,  they  became  proud  and  puffed  up  in  their  own  mind,  and 
needed  to  be  taught  line  upon  line,  so  often,  "  Thou  shalt 
remember  all  the  way  which  the  Lord  thy  God  led  thee 
these  forty  years  in  the  wilderness,  to  humble  thee  —  lest 
thou  say  in  thy  heart.  My  power  and  the  might  of  mine  hand 
hath  gotten  me  this  wealth.  But  thou  shalt  remember  the 
Lord  thy  God  :  for  it  is  he  that  giveth  thee  power  to  get 
wealth."  And  he  tells  them  that  he  chose  them,  not  be- 
cause they  were  greater,  or  more  excellent  than  any  other 
nation,  but  because,  in  his  own  sovereignity,  he  set  his  love 
upon  them.  Thus  they  were  hedged  round  with  ceremo- 
nial laws ;  they  had  presented  before  them  a  perfect,  infi- 
nitely perfect  Model ;  they  were  selected  by  distinguishing 
grace  in  order  to  reach  and  strive  after  this  great  destiny ; 
they  had  ringing  in  their  ears,  every  day,  the  law,  "  Thou 


128  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

shalt  love,"  wliich  is  translated  into  practical  language, "  Thou 
slialt  be  holy,"  in  order  that  they  might  obtain  the  end  for 
which  they  were  chosen,  and  blessed,  and  favored  —  to  be 
a  separated  people,  and  a  holy  people  to  the  Lord.  Now, 
what  the  Jews  were  mean  to  be  nationally,  we  Christians 
are  meant  to  be  personally.  We,  too,  are  selected  and  fa- 
vored for  this  purpose ;  and  we  shall  find  all  the  economy 
of  the  New  Testament  constantly  contemplates  the  holiness 
of  God's  people,  as  the  great  end,  and  object,  and  aim  of  our 
Christian  privileges,  and  blessings,  and  mercies  upon  earth. 
But,  first  of  all,  let  us  define  what  holiness  is.  I  said,  in 
the  commencement  of  my  remarks,  it  is  literally,  separation. 
A  thing  that  was  set  apart  to  evil  is  called  holy.  I  have 
quoted  to  you  before  the  word  in  the  Hebrew,  as  applied  to 
a  person  devoted  to  wickedness,  just  as  it  is  applied  to  a  per- 
son devoted  to  holiness.  The  word  means  simply  separa- 
tion. So  the  Latin  word  sacer,  from  which  comes  our  word 
sacred,  is  employed  to  denote  profane,  as  well  as  sacred  — 
means  wicked,  as  well  as  holy.     Hence  the  expression  — 

"  Auri  sacra  fames," 

literally  translated,  "  the  sacred  thirst  of  gold ;  "  but  strictly 
and  properly,  "  the  accursed  thirst  of  gold."  The  meaning 
therefore  of  a  holy  person  is  one  severed  or  separated  to 
something ;  and  when  applied  to  that  which  is  pure,  and  just, 
and  true,  it  means  separated  to  God.  And  we  can  only 
form  an  idea  of  what  holiness  is  by  seeing  it  defined  by  God, 
as  embodied  in  his  character,  and  explained  at  length  in  his 
Word.  The  attribute  of  God  himself —  that  is  perhaps  the 
most  solemn,  the  most  solemnizing,  the  most  impressive  —  is 
the  attribute  of  holiness.  It  is  the  balance,  if  I  may  so 
speak,  of  all  the  attributes  of  Deity.  Power  without  holi- 
ness would  degenerate  into  cruelty;  omniscience  without 
holiness  would  become  craft ;  justice  without  holiness  would 
degenerate   into   revenge ;  and   goodness   witliout   holiness 


LEVITICUS   XX.  129 

would  be  passionate  and  intemperate  fondness  doing  mis- 
ehief  rather  than  accomplishing  good.  You  can  see  there- 
fore that  holiness  pervading,  linking  together  all  the  at- 
tributes of  Deity,  lend  to  God  a  grandeur,  an  august 
magnificence  that  a  Christian  can  conceive,  but  a  poet  even 
cannot  unfold.  Holiness,  then,  as  seen  in  God,  is  that  at- 
tribute which  is  of  supreme  importance  —  gives  fulness, 
glory,  perfection,  if  one  may  so  speak  of  God ;  for  it  is  de- 
scribing him  in  the  language  for  human  apprehension ;  and 
makes  him  the  Holy,  Holy,  Holy  One,  who  inhabiteth  eter- 
nity. Holiness  on  our  part  is  acquiescence  in  this  picture  — 
admiration  of  it,  thirst  to  approach  to  it,  delight  in  the  law 
that  declares  it  and  requires  conformity  to  it.  A  rebel  de- 
tests the  law  that  condemns  him ;  a  Christian  admires  the 
equity,  the  glory,  and  the  excellence  of  that  law,  even  when 
that  law  condemns  him.  Holiness  in  a  Christian  is  just  sep- 
aration, sanctification,  severance  from  the  excessive  love  of 
things  lawful,  from  the  forbidden  love  of  things  sinful,  to  the 
growing  love  of  what  God  has  commanded  in  his  holy  Word, 
and  of  the  grand  image  that  God  has  depicted  in  every 
page  of  his  revelation. 

Now  having  seen  what  this  holiness  is,  let  me  state  in  the 
next  place  how  Christians  in  the  New  Testament  are  con- 
stantly associated  with  it.  First,  they  are  elected  to  it.  He 
has  chosen  us  in  Christ  from  the  foundation  of  the  world, 
that  we  should  be  holy.  Many,  not  many,  I  hope,  but  some, 
hearing  of  the  doctrine  of  election  or  predestination,  would 
say,  "  He  has  predestinated  or  chosen  us  in  Christ  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world  that  we  should  give  ourselves  no 
trouble  about  the  matter.  If  we  are  chosen  we  shall  go  to 
heaven ;  if  not  we  shall  never  see  it."  That  is  the  world'3 
logic.  But  you  observe  the  logic  that  is  true  belongs  to  a 
loftier  level.  It  is  so  associated  with  practical  character  that 
there  is  no  election,  you  may  depend  on  it,  where  there  is  no 
holiness ;  there  is  no  predestination  where  there  is  no  piety  ; 


130  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

and  wherever  election  is  spoken  of  in  tlie  Bible,  it  is  chosen 
in  Christ  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  not  that  we  may 
dispense  with  character,  but  that  we  should  be  holy  and 
blameless  before  him.  Again  we  read,  "  God  has  called  us 
to  holiness ; "  and  again,  "  Created  in  righteousness  and  true 
holiness ; "  and  again,  "  Serve  God  in  holiness  all  the  days 
of  your  life  ; "  and  again,  "  Holiness,  without  which  no  man 
can  see  the  Lord."  So  that  we  can  see  this  holiness  of  char- 
acter, whatever  it  be,  is  not  the  incidental  characteristic  of  a 
few,  but  the  grand  and  distinguishing  feature  of  every  true 
Christian ;  so  much  so,  that  to  be  without  it  is  to  be  without 
the  badge  of  heaven,  the  image  and  superscription  of  Him 
who  has  redeemed  us  by  his  precious  blood.  It  is  spoken 
of  as  necessary  to  worship,  "  Who  shall  ascend  into  the 
house  of  God?  He  that  hath  clean  hands,  and  hath  not 
lifted  up  his  heart  unto  vanity."  It  is  again  prayed  for  by 
our  blessed  Lord  when  he  says,  "  Sanctify  them  through  thy 
truth.  Thy  word  is  truth."  Christ's  righteousness  upon  us 
is  our  title,  but  this  holiness  within  us  is  character.  By 
Christ  our  state  is  changed ;  by  the  Holy  Spirit  our  charac- 
ter is  transformed.  The  first  is  our  safety,  the  second  is  our 
fitness  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 

Now  this  holiness  in  the  next  place  is  true  and  lasting 
beauty ;  it  is  real  and  original  beauty.  I  believe  that  all 
things  on  earth  are  but  dim  at  best,  and  since  sin  entered, 
stained  shadows  of  the  great  originals  that  are  in  heaven. 
We  fancy  because  we  are  so  enamoured  with  these  things, 
that  when  the  Bible  uses  things  below  to  represent  things 
above,  it  borrows  aid  from  the  earthly  to  set  forth  the  splen- 
dor of  the  heavenly.  But  the  truth  is,  the  earthly  is  the 
copy ;  the  heavenly  is  the  original.  And  true  beauty,  there- 
fore, is  not  the  vulgar  beauty  that  the  eye  admires,  but  that 
inner,  moral  beauty,  which  a  Christian  deeply  and  truly  sym- 
pathizes with.  The  true  beauty  of  a  Cln-istian,  or  the  true 
beauty  of  the  Church  —  that  is,  the  company  of  Christians 


LEVITICUS    XX.  131 

—  is  not  outward  robe  or  ecclesiastical  decoration,  or  archi- 
tectural pomp  and  splendor,  but  moral  excellence.  The 
King's  daughter  has  all  her  beauty  within,  that  needs  a  spir- 
itual eye  to  discriminate  and  discern.  The  mass  of  mankind 
can  only  see  glare,  pretension,  gaudiness,  but  the  true  Chris- 
tian sees  a  city  where  the  world  sees  none  ;  for  Christ,  Avhen 
he  came  to  his  own,  his  own  received  him  not ;  there  was  no 
beauty  in  him  that  the  world  should  desire  him.  And  it  is 
said  of  Christians  still,  "  The  world  knoweth  us  not ; "  that 
is,  does  not  distinguish,  discriminate,  and  admire  us ;  just 
because  spiritual  things,  in  proportion  as  they  are  so,  are 
foolishness  to  the  natural  man.  But  this  true  moral  beauty 
with  which  the  heart  of  a  Christian  is  inlaid,  w^iicli  grows 
in  splendor  and  in  richness  every  day,  is  that  which  is  real 
in  the  sight  of  God,  and  will  outlive  all  the  tints  of  flowers, 
all  the  colors  of  the  rainbow,  and  all  that  man,  as  man, 
thinks  fixir  and  beautiful  on  earth. 

And  this  holiness,  too,  of  character  is  the  highest  possible 
honor.  It  is  the  livery  of  heaven ;  it  is  the  very  robes  of 
the  King  of  glory ;  it  is  the  dress  which  he  prepares  for  his 
own ;  it  is  the  Apocalyptic  garments  "  white  and  clean,  which 
are  the  righteousness  of  saints ; "  it  is  the  raiment  w^hite  and 
clean  which  no  moth  can  gnaw,  which  no  rust  can  decay, 
which  no  thief  can  break  through  and  steal. 

And  in  the  next  place,  this  holiness  is  fitness  for  heaven. 
It  is  not  our  title  to  heaven ;  I  have  said  that  is  Christ's 
righteousness  upon  us ;  but  it  is  our  fitness  for  heaven.  A 
man  without  an  ear  cannot  enjoy  music.  Many  have  so  de- 
fective taste  that  they  cannot  admire  or  appreciate  the  most 
beautiful  painting ;  the  commonest  daub  and  the  most  bril- 
liant production  of  one  of  the  great  masters  would  seem 
equally  good  or  bad  to  them.  So  such  persons  are  not  fit 
for  enjoying  such  things.  In  the  same  manner,  a  person 
without  a  sanctified  heart,  without  holiness,  is  not  fit  for 
heaven.     He  could  not  breathe  its  air,  he  could  not  listen 


132  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

to  its  harmonie.s,  he  could  not  enter  upon  its  duties  ;  it  would 
be  a  strange  and  an  alien  element,  in  Avliich  he  could  have 
no  joy,  because  he  is  utterly  unprepared,  and  unfit  for  it. 
Every  creature  is  made  for  the  sphere  in  which  it  is  to 
move.  The  Christian  is  made  for  heaven ;  the  lost  sinner 
makes  himself,  not  anybody  else,  for  ruin.  It  is  our  fitness 
for  heaven. 

In  the  next  j^lace,  it  is  the  distinguishing  mark  of  the  true 
church  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  We  distinguish  churches 
by  names,  by  geographical  boundaries,  by  national  features. 
But  none  of  these  are  the  true  distinction  of  the  Church  of 
Christ ;  not  baptism,  not  even  the  Lord's  Supper,  not  out- 
ward rites,  however  proper,  but  inward  character,  is  the  true 
stamp  and  token  of  the  people  and  the  Church  of  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  If  we  have  no  holiness,  we  may  be  Church- 
men, or  we  may  be  Dissenters,  but  we  are  not  Christ's  peo- 
ple ;  if  we  have  this  inner  holiness,  the  work  of  the  Spirit 
within  us,  given  by  Christ  to  them  that  believe  on  his  name, 
we  may  be  Churchmen,  or  we  may  be  Dissenters,  or  we  may 
be  neither ;  we  are  something  better,  we  are  Christians.  It 
is  this  that  makes  a  Christian ;  and  Avithout  this  he  cannot 
see  God,  or  put  forth  any  valid  claim  to  be  a  Christian  at 
all. 

In  the  next  place,  the  Holy  Spirit  is  the  Author  of  this 
holiness.  We  believe  in  a  Trinity.  I  cannot  see  how  it  is 
possible  for  a  Unitarian  to  get  to  heaven.  God  may  deal 
with  such  in  a  way  I  know  not ;  but  it  seems  to  me  that  our 
ruin  is  so  deep  that  it  needs  a  Triune  God  to  rescue  us. 
We  need  the  Father's  electing  love,  we  need  the  Son's  re- 
deeming love,  we  need  the  Holy  Spirit's  efiective  and  sanc- 
tifying love.  And  hence  it  is  promised  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
will  take  of  the  things  of  Christ,  and  show  them  to  us  — 
that  he  will  make  our  bodies  temples  in  which  he  will  dwell 
—  that  he  will  regenerate  our  hearts,  which  must  be  born 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  —  that  he  will  comfort  us  and  sanctify  us, 


LEVITICUS   XX.  133 

and  be  with  us  till  we  ap[)ear  before  GoJ  in  ZIon.  And 
thus  we  need  a  Holy  Spirit  to  regenerate  us  just  as  we  need 
Clirist  to  redeem  us.  He  that  speaks  of  baptismal  regener- 
ation just  regards  the  Holy  Spirit  as  he  that  accepts  transub- 
stantiation  regards  our  Blessed  Lord :  in  the  case  of  the 
Tractarian  divine,  baptism  is  put  in  the  room  of  the  Holy 
Ghost ;  in  the  case  of  the  Roman  Catholic  divine,  the  bread 
upon  the  altar  is  put  in  the  room  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
And  I  do  not  know  which  is  the  greater  sin ;  in  all  proba- 
bility the  former;  it  is  at  least  as  deadly,  as  fraught  Avith 
pernicious  and  evil  results.  But  let  us  never  forget  that  no 
bread  upon  the  altar  can  be  a  substitute  for  the  living  bread, 
Christ  Jesus ;  and  no  water  in  the  baptismal  font  can  be  a 
substitute  for  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  'No  bread  that  a 
priest  can  consecrate  can  be  turned  into  my  Saviour ;  no 
water  that  a  presbyter  can  bless  can  take  the  place  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  wash  my  heart.  He  who  is  God  only  can 
touch  the  heart,  regenerate,  retune,  and  reconsecrate  it. 

Thus  we  have  seen  what  this  holiness  is,  and  who  is  the 
Author  of  it ;  let  me  notice  now  that  all  the  institutions  of 
the  Gospel  are  meant  to  promote  it.  Preaching  is  meant  to 
promote  it  —  sacraments  are  meant  to  promote  it  —  the  read- 
ing of  the  Bible  is  meant  to  promote  it  —  the  teaching  of 
teachers  is  meant  to  promote  it;  all  our  schools  and  institu- 
tions, our  preaching  and  hearing,  our  praying  and  communi- 
cating, are  all  helps  that,  by  the  blessing  of  the  Spirit  of 
God,  bring  us  nearer  to  Him  who  is  the  Fountain  of  all  ho- 
liness, of  all  light,  and  of  all  life. 

And  in  the  next  place,  all  the  chastisements  of  God's 
providence  are  meant  to  promote  this.  The  Apostle  says  so 
expressly.  He  says,  "Our  fathers  verily  for  a  few  days 
chastened  us  after  their  own  pleasure ;  but  he  for  our  profit, 
that  we  might  be  partakers  of  his  holiness. 

And  lastly,  a  day  will  come  when  the  Church,  clothed  in 
robes  now  stained  and  torn  by  the  wear  and  tear  of  a  fallen 
12 


134  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

world,  shall  be  arrayed  in  those  bridal  robes  that  are  pre- 
pared for  her  by  her  Lord,  and  shall  be  presented  to  him- 
self no  longer  a  mutilated,  imperfect,  sin-stained  widow, 
weeping,  and  seeking  the  everlasting  Husband  to  return,  but 
a  glorious  Church,  without  spot,  or  wrinkle,  or  any  such 
thinsf. 


CHAPTER    XXI 


OUTWARD  SYMMETRY  AND  INWARD  BEAUTY  —  THE  JEWISH  PRIEST  — 
THE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTER  —  EXAMPLE  —  MINISTER  MUST  liE  SENT 
BY  HOLY'  SPIRIT  —  AMBASSADORS — MINISTERS  APT  TO  READ  — 
PRAYERFUL  —  WHAT  MINISTERS  SHOULD  NOT  BE  —  NOT  LORDS 
OVER  god's  HERITAGE  —  NOT  COVETOUS — NOT  CONTENTIOUS 
—  NOT  MEN-PLEASERS  —  NOT  GIVEN  TO  MUCH  WINE. 

The  words  I  select  from  this  chapter  for  special  exposi- 
tion are  these  :  — 

"  No  man  that  hath  a  blemisli  of  the  seetT  of  Aaron  the  priest  shall 
come  nigh  to  offer  the  offerings  of  the  Lord  made  by  fire :  he  ha^h 
a  blemish ;  he  shall  not  come  nigh  to  offer  the  bread  of  his  God. 
He  shall  eat  the  bread  of  his  God,  both  of  the  most  holy,  and  of 
the  holy.  Only  he  shall  not  go  in  unto  the  vail,  nor  come  nigh 
unto  the  altar,  because  he  hath  a  blemish  ;  that  he  profane  not  my 
sanctuaries  :  for  I  the  Lord  do  sanctify  them."  —  Ver.  21-23. 

I  stated  in  the  course  of  my  remarks  on  a  portion  of  the 
previous  chapter,  that  there  are  parts  of  the  Bible  more 
adapted  for  private  perusal  than  for  public  reading,  but  that 
in  the  chapters  wiiich  we  reasonably  passed  over  in  our 
Sabbath  morning  reading  there  were  incidental  texts  valua- 
ble lor  instruction,  precious  in  themselves,  and  also  summa- 
ries of  all  the  laws  that  regulated,  peculiarly  and  tempora- 
rily regulated,  that  ancient  economy.  I  have  already 
directed  your  attention  to  the  requirement  in  God's  Word, 
"  Ye  shall  be  holy  unto  me  :  for  I  the  Lord  am  holy,  and 
have  severed  you  from  other  people,   that  ye  should  be 

(135) 


136  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

mine."  I  showed  that  God's  ancient  people  were  seques- 
tered and  separated  from  the  rest  of  heathendom  in  order 
that  they  miglit  reflect  the  character  of  God,  be  a  model  na- 
tion, show  what  grace  would  make  them ;  and  that  from  being 
a  mere  crowd  in  the  desert  they  became  a  congregation  in  the 
Tabernacle ;  from  being  a  mob  they  became  a  people ;  from 
a  nomade  race  of  savages,  they  were  by  God's  grace,  for 
the  benefit  of  surrounding  nations,  transformed  into  a  royal 
priesthood,  a  peculiar  people,  to  show  forth  the  praises  of 
Him  who  had  called  them  out  of  darkness  into  his  mar- 
vellous light.  I  then  showed  from  all  this  that  what  they 
were  nationally,  or  rather  what  they  were  meant  to  be 
nationally,  we  believers,  if  v.^e  be  such,  are  designed  to  be 
personally :  for  Peter  says,  "  Ye  are  a  chosen  genera- 
tion, a  holy,  royal  priesthood,  an  holy  nation,  a  peculiar 
people." 

Again,  John  in  the  Apocalypse,  speaks  of  us  as  "  kings 
and  priests  unto  God."  And,  therefore,  what  was  national 
in  the  Jews  becomes  i3ersonal  in  us ;  and  surrounded  with 
richer  privileges,  inspired  by  yet  richer  grace,  we  ought  to 
be  a  j)eople  on  whom  is  sculptured  more  deeply  and  vividly 
the  lineaments  of  that  Perfect  Example,  that  beautiful 
character,  that  Holy  One,  whose  we  are,  and  whom  we  pro- 
fess to  serve. 

Now  the  passage  I  have  selected  for  this  evening's  thought 
is,  what  the  priest  was  required  to  be  mider  the  ancient 
Jewish  economy.  He  must  be  of  the  race  of  Aaron ;  in  his 
outward  form  all  that  was  symmetrical  to  commend  him  to 
the  eye ;  not  because  outward  appearance  was  essential  in 
the  service  of  God,  but  because  every  person  and  every 
thing,  in  that  ancient  economy,  was  a  visible  symbol  to 
embody  and  to  reflect  round  it  a  great  moral  and  instructive 
truth.  The  Jewish  priest  was  required  to  be  in  his  j^erson 
all  that  v/as  symmetrical  and  well  proportioned,  not  wound- 
ed, not  crooked,  simply  to  reflect  a  great  truth,  "  Be  ye  holy 


LEVITICUS   XXI.  137 

that  bear  the  vessels  of  the  Lord/'  The  shining  tent,  that 
is  the  body,  was  required  to  be  perfect  in  the  Jewish  econo- 
my ;  tlie  inner  man  is  required  to  be  holy,  as  a  true  priest 
in  the  holy  plac(;  within,  in  our  economy,  to  show  fortli  the 
})raises  of  Ilini  who  hath  called  us  from  darkness  into  his 
marvellous  light.  It  is,  therefore,  from  this  passage  that  I 
draw  some  instruction,  less  for  the  people,  and  more  for 
those  who  are  to  preach  to  them,  preside  over  them,  and 
teach  them  the  things  that  belong  to  their  eternal  peace. 
And  it  is  one  of  the  peculiarities  of  our  religion,  that  there 
is  nothing  like  what  the  ancient  Egyptians  had  —  what  they 
called  an  esoteric  and  an  isoteric  truth,  or  a  teaching  for  the 
crowd,  and  a  teaching  for  the  priest :  but  the  same  Book 
that  contains  the  privileges  and  the  duties  of  the  people, 
contains  also  the  duties  and  the  obligations  of  the  ministry : 
so  that  the  people  can  see,  by  comparing  the  living  original 
with  the  divine  picture,  whether  their  teachers  have  that 
true  succession  which  consists  not,  as  in  the  Jewish  priest- 
hood, in  personal  lineage,  or  personal  descent,  but  in  spirit- 
ual, moral,  divine  connection  w^ith,  and  likeness  to.  Him 
who  sends  the  laborers  into  the  harvest. 

Now,  the  character  of  the  priests  here  again  reminds  us 
how  important  it  is  that  they,  in  the  modern  economy,  who 
preach  to  their  fellow  men,  and  teach  the  truth,  and  explain 
tlie  way  that  leads  to  God,  should  be  specimens  of  what 
their  words  teach.  Nobody  needs  here  to  be  told  that  char- 
acter is  more  eloquent  than  words  ;  that  what  a  man  is, 
makes  a  deeper,  though  it  may  be  a  slower  impression,  than 
what  a  man  says.  We  estimate,  in  fact,  the  sincerity  of  a 
man's  profession  I5y  the  quiet  consistency  of  his  practice 
If  he  speak  like  an  angel,  but  live  like  a  fallen  fiend,  we  at 
once  say  the  speaking  is  for  an  object,  it  is  not  sincere,  the 
comment  is  inconsistent  with  the  text,  the  character  contra- 
dicts the  teaching ;  and  such  teaching  will  have  no  influence, 
and  exert  no  power  upon  mankind.  Because  we  hear  truth 
12* 


138  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

from  a  bad  man,  it  does  not  follow  that  we  are  released 
from  the  responsibility  of  accepting  it ;  but  it  is  no  less  true, 
that  truth  so  preached  will  not  have  much  effect.  There 
will  be  the  irresistible  contradiction  of  an  inconsistent  life 
staring  the  most  eloquent  statement  out  of  countenance,  and 
making  the  people  feel  that  there  is  no  reality  in  the  utter- 
ance, because  there  is  no  harmony  with  it  in  the  life.  It  is 
therefore  most  important  now,  as  it  Avas  then,  that  they  who 
l^reach  the  Gospel  should  not  only,  as  the  apostle  says,  live 
by  the  Gospel  —  as  they  may  be  willing  enough  to  do,  — 
but  should  also  live  the  Gospel.  Hence  we  have  constantly 
set  before  us  in  the  sacred  Scriptures  the  importance  of 
ministerial  example ;  the  duty  of  following  that  example 
when  it  is  what  it  should  be,  in  harmony  with  the  great 
Exemplar  set  forth  in  Scripture.  Besides,  that  a  minister 
should  still  more  be  watchful,  or  a  teacher  in  a  school,  for  it 
matters  not  how  lowly  or  how  lofty  the  position  may  be,  if 
we  seek  to  teach  others  —  that  such  a  one  should  be  "  zeal- 
ous to  maintain  good  works,"  in  the  language  of  the  apostle, 
is  obvious  from  this ;  he  is  seen  by  more  eyes,  his  profession 
rises  to  a  loftier  level,  he  will  be  tested  by  a  higher  standard, 
he  will  be  sifted  and  searched,  and  lynx  eyes  and  Argus 
eyes  will  all  be  upon  him  from  every  point  of  the  compass, 
disposed  to  magnify  defects  into  vices,  and  to  diminish  vir- 
tues into  almost  the  reverse ;  such  is  the  tendency  of  cor- 
rupt human  nature.  He,  therefore,  that  occupies  a  lofty 
place  in  this  world,  whatever  his  profession  be,  ought  to  be 
circumspect.  If  he  have,  in  addition  to  that,  authority,  he 
surely  ought  to  be  an  example  to  those  that  are  under  him, 
of  whatsoever  things  are  pure,  and  just^nd  lovely.  Only 
we  must  never  confound  the  pretence  of  example  with  the 
reality.  Real  character  is  quiet,  unassuming,  unpretending. 
Wherever  there  is  much  noise,  bright  glare,  loud  pretension, 
an  altered  tone  accommodated  to  a  theme,  thought  to  be  the 
sacred  one ;  an  attitude,  an  aspect,  and  a  pretension  obvi- 


LEVITICUS    XXI.  139 

ously  put  on,  that  is  not  the  consistency  of  a  Christian  min- 
ister. One  should  just  live  and  act  with  all  the  simplicity 
which  one's  inner  feelings  prompt,  being  sure  that  one  is 
right  at  heart,  and  leaving  the  details  of  conduct  to  adapt 
themselves  to  the  guiding,  holy,  and  righteous  influence  that 
is  within.  True  character  is  not  something  shaped  from 
without,  or  put  on,  but  something  radiated  from  within,  and 
reflected  through  the  outer  man  upon  the  eyes  of  all  that 
choose  to  behold  it.  Such  a  character  is  full  of  power.  It 
was  said  of  Jesus,  "  Never  man  spake  like  this  man ; "  but 
the  reason  of  that  was,  that  never  man  lived  like  this  man ; 
and  if  he  had  not  so  lived  he  had  never  so  spoken.  His 
words  were  so  full  of  power,  because  they  came  clearly  and 
directly  from  a  heart  charged  with  infinite  love,  sympathy, 
beneficence,  and  truth. 

When  one  who  teaches  others,  and  occupies  a  prominent 
place,  acts  inconsistently  with  that  teaching,  those  who  hate 
the  Gospel  are  too  glad  to  get  a  handle  for  rejecting  it. 
How  often  will  you  hear  the  sceptic  and  the  infidel  say,  "  I 
am  not  a  Christian  ; "  when  you  ask  him  why,  he  will  say, 
"  Do  you  notice  how  that  bishop  does,  and  how  that  rector 
acts,  and  how  that  minister  behaves  ? "  Well,  but  what 
does  that  prove  ?  It  only  shows  that  in  his  heart  the  ob- 
jector is  conscious  that  this  religion  dictates  a  loftier  stand- 
ard than  is  usual ;  and  the  very  reason  that  he  gives  for 
rejecting  this  religion  implies  the  superiority  of  the  precepts 
that  make  any  inconsistency  with  it  appear  so  obvious  to 
him.  Besides,  if  all  men  go  wrong,  that  is  no  reason  why 
we  should  do  so.  We  are  not  to  follow  a  multitude  to  do 
evil ;  and  if  all  men's  lives  were  to  contradict  this  Book, 
that  is  no  reason  for  our  doing  so  ;  though  it  is  matter  of 
fact  that  inconsistency  on  the  part  of  those  that  teach,  will 
ever  be  a  stumbling-block  and  an  obstruction  to  the  recep- 
tion of  the  truth  by  those  that  hear.  The  greatest  eloquence 
is  the  quiet  consistency  of  a  pure  and  true  life ;  the  truest 


140  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

apostolical  succession  is  not  proving  our  relation  to  the 
apostles  by  imaginary  links ;  but  showing  that  we  belong, 
either  by  having  transmitted  to  us  their  beautiful  example, 
their  self-sacrifice,  and  speaking  the  words  that  they  spoke 
of  soberness  and  of  trutli.  It  is  quite  possible  to  sit  in 
Moses'  seat,  and  contradict  Moses  to  his  face.  It  is  quit^ 
possible  to  be  children  of  Abraham,  according  to  the  flesh, 
and  yet  take  up  stones  to  stone  him  who  was  Abraham's 
hope.  No  outer  privilege,  even  if  real,  can  be  any  substi- 
tute for  inward  life,  consistent  walk,  faithful,  true,  and 
S|)iritual  preaching.  Having  seen  the  necessity  of  a  pure 
and  good  example,  let  me  notice  some  other  features  in  the 
minister  of  the  Gospel,  by  which  we  can  distinguish  and 
discriminate  what  should  be  his  character,  and  who  a  true 
minister  is.  The  very  first  proof  is,  a  true  minister  of 
Christ  is  sent  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  I  do  not  mean 
that  the  Spirit  descends  upon  him  visibly  like  a  dove,  or 
that  a  voice  rends  the  heavens,  and  audibly  says,  "  I  com- 
mission this  man ; "  but  that  he  who  believes  he  is  called  to 
the  ministry  in  the  providence  of  God,  desires  in  his  own 
heart  to  preach  what  he  has  learned,  has  the  conviction  that 
he  has  some  capacity  for  doing  so  —  has  those  chief  fea- 
tures that  are  required  of  a  minister  by  the  apostle ;  and  if 
so,  he  may  be  sure  that  he  is  called  by  the  Holy  Spirit,  who 
anoints  and  calls  his  own  into  the  vineyard.  We  read  that 
the  Holy  Ghost  said,  "  Separate  me  Saul  and  Barnabas  for 
the  work  whereunto  I  have  called  them."  And  if  I  mistake 
not,  in  the  ordinal  of  the  English  church,  the  minister  to  be 
ordained  must  confess  that  he  is  called  by  the  Holy  Ghost ; 
a  very  solemn  profession,  a  very  awful  one,  if  not  true ;  but 
nothing  can  be  more  scriptural  than  to  require  such  a  pro- 
fession, and  nothing  more  essential  to  a  minister  than  the 
possession  of  that  Holy  Spirit.  No  ordination  by  presby- 
ters, no  ordination  by  a  bishop,  is  worth  one  penny  without 
the  inner  call  and  commission  of  the  Holy  Ghost ;  and  that 


LEVITICUS    XXI.  141 

minister  who  is  not  so  called,  or  so  commissioned,  or  so 
taught,  may  be  ordained  by  all  the  prelates  and  presbyters 
in  Christendom ;  he  runs  unsent,  and  he  is  no  more  a  true 
minister  of  the  Gospel  than  was  Judas,  or  any  false  and 
apostate  teacher  in  early  days. 

The  next  feature  in  a  true  minister  of  the  Gospel  is,  he  is 
to  be  an  ambassador  from  God.  Who  is  an  ambassador  ? 
This  is  the  word  used  by  an  apostle.  "  We  are  ambassadors 
of  God,  as  though  God  did  beseech  you  by  us,  we  pray  you 
in  Christ's  stead  be  ye  reconciled  unto  God."  An  ambas- 
sador's province  is  simply  to  convey  from  his  own  sovereign 
that  sovereign's  instructions  to  the  court  of  another  sovereign. 
He  must  not  dilute  them,  nor  add  to  them,  nor  modify  them. 
He  is  the  best  ambassador  who  conveys  most  clearly  the  in- 
structions of  his  court,  and  enforces  them  with  the  ablest,  the 
strongest,  and  the  truest  reasons.  So  a  minister  of  the  Gos- 
pel is  an  ambassador  from  God.  His  chart  is  the  Bible,  and 
his  duty  is  to  unfold,  explain,  and  enforce  it;  to  add  noth- 
ing to  it,  to  subtract  nothing  from  it,  but  to  present  it  in  eveiy 
light,  to  follow  it  up  Avith  every  argument,  and  to  j)ress  upon 
the  consciences  and  hearts  of  the  people  that  great  message 
that  he  carries  with  him  from  the  King  of  kings,  and  Lord  of 
lords.  If  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  be  ambassadors,  they 
cannot  be  what  are  called  sacrificing  priests :  and  for  this 
obvious  reason ;  —  a  priest  is  a  person  that  deals  with  God 
on  behalf  of  man  ;  but  an  ambassador  is  one  that  deals  with 
man  on  behalf  of  God ;  just  the  opposite.  If,  therefore,  a 
man  be  a  sacrificing  priest,  he  is  not  an  ambassador ;  if  he 
be  an  ambassador,  he  cannot  be  a  sacrificing  priest.  And, 
therefore,  he  in  the  Christian  Church  who  now  says  he  is  to 
offer  sacrifices  for  men,  lays  aside  all  pretension  to  be  an  am- 
bassador. He  does  not  come  down  from  God  to  deal  Avith 
me  on  God's  behalf;  but  he  professes  to  go  up  to  God,  to 
deal  with  God  on  my  behalf.  And,  therefore,  if  he  be  a 
priest,  he  is  not  one  of  the  Christian  ministry.     I  spoke  of  a 


142  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

requirement  in  the  English  ordinaL  The  Romish  ordinal, 
according  to  which  priests  are  ordained,  ordains  them  not  for 
any  thing  approaching  to  Christianity.  For  instance,  when 
a  priest  in  the  Church  of  Eome  is  ordained,  there  is  put 
into  his  hand  a  patten  for  holding  bread,  and  a  cup  for 
holding  wine,  and  the  bishop  that  ordains  him  commissions 
him  to  go  and  offer  the  soul  and  divinity,  the  flesh  and  blood 
of  the  Son  of  God,  a  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  the  living  and 
the  dead  ;  but  not  one  word  about  preaching,  not  one  word 
about  the  Bible.  He  may  be  a  Christian  before  —  I  do  not 
judge  him  in  that ;  but  the  man  ordained  to  be  a  Koman 
Catholic  priest  is  no  more,  in  virtue  of  his  ordination  —  do 
not  mistake  me  —  a  Christian  minister,  than  he  is  a  Mahom- 
etan mufti.  He  does  not  undertake  a  single  Christian  func- 
tion ;  he  is  not  ordained  to  execute  one  ;  he  is  not  enjoined 
even  to  read  the  Bible  :  and  one  priest  I  know  told  me  he 
never  saw  a  Bible  till  many  years  after  he  was  ordained  a 
priest  in  that  Church.  The  Christian  minister,  however,  is 
ordained,  in  the  language  of  the  apostles,  to  preach  the 
Gospel ;  he  is  appointed  to  teach,  as  an  ambassador  from 
God,  a  presbyter,  an  evangehst,  a  bishop,  an  apostle,  or 
whatever  other  name  there  may  be  by  which  he  is  known. 

One  other  character  is  given  to  the  ministry ;  its  subjects 
are  stewards.  The  apostle  says,  "  Let  a  man  so  account  of 
us  as  of  the  ministers  of  Christ,  and  stewards  of  the  myste- 
ries of  God."  Servants  for  duty,  stewards  for  responsibility. 
A  steward  has  charge  of  much ;  if  he  keep  back  what  he 
ought  to  put  forward,  or  put  forward  what  he  ought  to  keep 
back,  or  supersede  what  he  should  preach  by  something  not 
from  the  source  and  fountain,  he  is  unfaithful,  and  does  not 
act  like  a  steward  of  God.  On  opening  the  Epistles  of  Paul, 
it  is  remarkable  how  very  emphatic  are  all  the  various  re- 
quirements in  the  minister  of  the  Gospel,  and  how  little  he 
speaks  of  any  of  those  things  thought  so  valuable  by  some. 
First  of  all,  it  is  said  he  must  be  one  holding  the  mystery  of 


LEVITICUS   XXI.  143 

the  truth  in  a  pure  conscience.  He  must  be  self-denying. 
The  minister  of  the  (iospel  must  be  self-denying;  denying 
himself  many  things  that  he  would  like  for  the  sake  of  those 
to  whose  good  he  is  sent  to  minister.  The  apostle  says,  "I 
keep  under  my  body,  and  bring  it  into  subjection,  lest  that 
by  any  means,  when  I  have  preached  to  others,  I  myself 
siiould  be  a  castaway  "  —  that  is,  disapproved  as  a  minister 
of  Christ.  Another  feature  given  by  the  apostle  of  a  min- 
ister is  one  "  apt  to  teach."  It  is  not  enough  that  one  should 
be  a  scholar ;  that  is  most  important :  but  how  often  do  you 
find  that  men  whose  minds  are  walking  encyclopa?dias  of 
knowledge,  are  not  able,  on  the  platform,  or  in  the  pulpit,  or 
anywhere  else,  to  speak  five  minutes  connected  sentences 
unfolding  what  their  minds  contain.  It  may  be,  as  some  one 
satirically  said,  that  the  emptiest  minds  can  speak  easiest, 
as  the  emptiest  churches  empty  fastest :  it  may  be  so,  but 
still  it  is  a  fact,  that  many  a  richly  stored  mind  has  not  the 
gift  of  speaking  its  thoughts,  and  that  many  a  one,  with  very 
little  in  the  mind,  has  the  power  of  making  the  most  of  that 
little.  But  it  is  a  requirement  in  a  minister  of  the  Gospel, 
not  only  that  his  mind  shall  be  well  stored,  not  only  that  he 
shall  be  well  instructed  —  and  in  the  present  day  the  very 
highest  scholarship  is  most  important  in  the  ministry  —  but 
that  also  he  shall  be  apt  to  teach ;  that  is,  have  the  power 
of  speaking  what  he  thinks,  clothing  his  ideas  with  simple 
and  appropriate  language.  The  very  best  way  to  do  so,  is 
never  to  be  anxious  while  we  speak  about  the  words,  but 
only  to  be  sure  of  thoughts,  and  words  are  certain  to  follow. 
There  can  be  no  difiiculty  in  clothing  a  thought  that  we 
clearly  understand  with  plain  words  ;  and  Avhenever  you  do 
not  understand  a  sermon,  it  is  not  because  the  subject  is  diffi- 
cult, but  because  the  minister  has  not  the  power  of  speaking 
clearly  what  he  wishes  to  convey.  The  plainest  and  the 
most  transparent  sermons  are  always  the  ablest ;  the  grand- 
est sermons  are  always  the  worst.     What  we  want  is  sim- 


144  BCRirTURE    READINGS. 

plicity  of  speech,  clearness  of  thouglit.  TVe  are  travellers 
in  a  dark  niglit,  and  in  a  weary  way  ;  and  the  plainest  sign- 
post that  tells  us  the  road  we  are  to  take,  if  not  of  the  finest 
Avood,  or  the  most  beautiful  painting,  is  the  most  useful,  be- 
cause it  is  most  easily  read  as  it  is  most  intelligibly  written. 

Again,  it  is  said  that  ministers  are  not  only  to  be  apt  to 
teach,  but  also  to  think  of  their  flocks  at  the  throne  of  grace. 
"Always,"  says  the  apostle,  "  in  every  prayer  of  mine  for 
you."  He  says  again,  "  I  bow  my  knees  unto  the  Father  of 
our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  of  whom  the  whole  family  in  heaven 
and  earth  is  named,  that  he  would  grant  you,  according  to 
the  riches  of  his  glory,  to  be  strengthened  witii  might  by  his 
spirit  in  the  inner  man."  * 

Having  shown,  then,  from  the  requirement  of  the  ancient 
Jewish  priest,  what  the  modern  Christian  minister  should  be 
—  holy  and  consistent  in  his  conduct,  intelligible  and  plain 
in  his  speech  —  let  me  show,  by  reference  to  the  same  source, 
some  things  that  ministers  should  not  be.  The  apostle  is  par- 
ticular in  laying  down  the  negative  side,  if  I  may  so  speak, 
of  ministerial  character.  First,  they  ought  not  to  be,  says 
the  apostle,  lords  over  God's  heritage ;  that  is,  they  ought 
not  to  dictate,  but  persuade.  They  ought  not  to  say  "  It  is 
so,"  because  they  think  so ;  but  it  is  so,  because  "  thus 
saith  the  Lord."  A  lord  over  God's  heritage  is  one  that 
dictates  what  is  his  own  instead  of  enforcing,  exhibiting, 
and  alleging  what  God  has  said  in  his  Word.  The  pul- 
pit ought  to  reflect  the  Scriptures,  sermons  to  be  the  mul- 
tiplied echoes  of  the  Bible,  and  what  the  minister  says  should 
derive  its  authority,  not  from  his  learning,  but  from  God's 
holy  Word.  A  second  negative  requirement  in  the  modern 
Christian  minister  is,  that  he  shall  not  be  greedy  of  filthy 
lucre.  Over  and  over  again  this  is  reiterated  and  repeated 
in  the  Scriptures.  Paul  could  say,  "  I  have  coveted  no  man's 
silver,  nor  gold,  nor  apparel."  I  believe  nothing  has  done 
greater  injury  to  the  Church  universal  than  the  evident  symp- 


LEVITICUS   XXI.  145 

toms  given,  but  not  often,  I  believe,  of  ministers  of  tlie  Gos- 
pel at  all  hazards  hastening  to  be  rich,  ready  to  sacrifice  duty 
for  profit.  Such  a  taste,  such  covetousness,  such  avarice 
eats  like  a  canker  into  real  piety,  corrodes  their  whole  char- 
acter, takes  away  all  force  from  what  they  say,  and  makes 
them  absolutely  useless.  "  Feed  the  flock  of  God  which  is 
among  you,  taking  the  oversight  thereof,  not  by  constraint, 
but  willingly  ;  not  for  filthy  lucre."  I  do  not  think  that  min- 
isters of  the  Gospel  should  be  poor :  that  is  often  as  incon- 
venient as  it  is  dangerous  to  be  excessively  rich ;  and  I  do 
not  agree  with  the  laity  that  a  layman  may  be  as  rich  as 
Croesus,  but  that  what  is  a  virtue  in  a  layman,  is  almost  sin 
in  a  clergyman.  I  cannot  see  that  there  is  any  sin  in  being 
rich,  if  your  riches  are  honestly  acquired,  or  that  there  is  any 
virtue  in  being  poor  ;  and  if  riches  in  a  layman  be  not  sin,  it 
cannot  be  sin  in  a  clergyman;  and  if  they  be  dangerous 
in  a  clergyman,  they  must  a  fortiori  be  dangerous  in 
a  layman.  But  if  riches  come  in  the  providence  of  God, 
you  are  responsible  for  the  use  of  them.  But  if  you  are 
not  rich,  to  set  your  heart  upon  riches,  and  hasten  to  be 
rich,  or  to  make  so  much  of  the  little  that  you  have,  that 
it  absorbs  all  your  thoughts,  that  is  to  be  greedy  of  filthy 
lucre,  to  covet  other  m^'s  silver,  gold,  and  apparel,  or 
to  take  the  oversight  of  the  flock  from  wrong  and  sinful 
motives.  To  enter  into  the  Church  to  get  a  living  as  the 
main  end  is  scandalous  ;  to  enter  into  the  Church  as  a  min- 
ister to  serve  God,  and  to  expect  that  you  will  get  bread  to 
eat,  and  raiment  to  put  on,  is  common  sense  and  reason. 
The  minister  of  the  Gospel  must  have  bread  to  eat,  and  rai- 
ment to  put  on  ;  and  if  he  ministers  to  you  in  spiritual  things, 
the  Church,  the  nation,  or  the  congregation,  or  whatever  may 
be  the  source,  ought  to  minister  to  him  in  temporal  things ; 
nothing  is  more  reasonable.  But  when  preferment,  the 
loaves  and  the  fishes,  are  made  the  dominant  and  the  chief 
things,  then  that  is  sin.     But  yet  I  will  venture  to  assert  — 

13 


146  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

and  it  is  needful  to  assert  it  in  these  days  —  infidels,  and 
persons  of  sceptic  and  antichristian  minds,  constantly  fling 
in  the  face  of  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  that  they  are  fond 
of  Avealth.  Now  what  is  the  fact  ?  If  all  the  wealth  of  the 
Church  of  England,  which  is  one  of  the  richest  bodies,  were 
thrown  into  one  common  fund,  and  divided  equally  among 
all  its  rectors,  curates,  vicars,  bishops,  each  would  get  about 
£190  a  year;  that  would  be  the  sum  total;  the  calculation 
has  been  made.  I  think  no  curate  ought  to  have  less  than 
£200,  and  no  rector  less  than  £500  a  year ;  and  if  I  could  I 
would  take  from  the  higher  bishops  in  order  to  enrich  the 
lower  ministers.  And  if  you  take  the  Scotch  Church  again, 
which  has  been  supposed  to  be  the  poorer  ;  if  all  the  money 
in  that  Church  were  thrown  into  a  coffer,  it  would  give  £300 
a  year  to  each ;  so  that  we  are  in  that  respect  richer  than 
the  Church  of  England ;  not  richer  in  reality,  but  richer  in 
more  equal  distribution.  If  you  examine  the  subject  calmly 
and  dispassionately,  you  will  see  that  of  the  ministers  of  the 
Gospel  it  cannot  be  said  that  they  are  greedy  of  filthy  lucre 
—  it  cannot  be  said  that  they  are  extravagantly  rich ;  and 
this  applies  to  dissenters  as  much  as  to  churchmen ;  and 
therefore  the  smart  remarks  of  sceptics  are  really  not  just  or 
true ;  they  are  meant  to  injure  that  blessed  Gospel  to  which 
we  are  the  witnesses,  and  of  which  we  are  the  preachers. 

Anotlier  negative  in  the  character  of  ministers  of  the 
Gospel  is,  that  they  should  not  be  contentious,  not  self- 
willed,  not  turbulent,  not  of  a  quarrelsome  spirit,  not  taking 
offence  at  little  matters,  not  angry  with  a  brother  because 
that  brother  in  every  jot  and  tittle  does  not  concur  with 
them.  Another  negative  is,  not  men-pleasers.  The  apostle 
says,  "  If  I  should  please  men,  I  should  not  be  the  servant 
of  Christ."  And  again,  he  says,  "  Not  as  pleasing  men,  but 
God ; "  that  is,  sacrificing  a  great  man's  smile,  a  rich  man's 
countenance,  for  Christ's  sake ;  not  caring  who  shall  take 
offence,  if  you  are  only  sure  that  you  speak  the  truth  in  a 


LEVITICUS    XXI.  147 

kind,  Christian,  and  conciliatory  spirit.  It  is  possible  to 
speak  truth  bitterly,  just  as  it  is  possible  to  speak  what  is 
false  lovingly  ;  but  very  often  truth  spoken  bitterly  and  vio- 
lently has  less  chance  of  success  than  a  falsehood  spoken 
with  great  plausibility  and  kindness.  Let  us,  therefore,  pro- 
claim the  truth ;  try  to  convey  the  most  unpalatable  trutlis, 
if  we  cannot  in  the  most  palatable  language,  at  least  wdtli  a 
most  conciliatory,  sympathizing,  and  kindly  spirit.  Let  us 
ever  show  it  is  to  win  souls,  not  to  give  offence.  Let  us  re- 
member that  men  are  differently  constituted,  and  that  truth 
needs  to  be  presented  to  sinful,  erring  man,  with  great  ten- 
derness and  forbearance.  It  is  not  God  on  Sinai  that  speaks 
from  the  pulpit,  but  frail  man  compassed  about  with  like 
infirmities,  himself  needing  to  feel  and  to  exemplify  the 
truths  that  he  speaks  and  preaches. 

The  next  negative  character  is,  "  not  given  to  much 
wine ;  "  it  is  one  of  the  characteristics  that  the  apostle  lays 
down ;  and  this  seems  to  have  been  then  a  very  important 
requirement,  and  from  what  one  reads  it  is  no  less  now. 
"  Not  given  to  much  wine ; "  not  the  prohibition  of  it,  but 
the  limitation  of  it.  If  what  is  called  the  Teetotal  princi- 
ple, however  good  and  valuable  it  may  be,  had  been  an 
apostolical  one,  I  do  submit  it  would  have  been  said,  "  not 
daring  to  taste  wine  : "  but  it  is  not  so  ;  "  not  given  to  much 
wine ; "  therefore  some  may  be  taken,  but  it  must  not  be  tak- 
en in  excess ;  and  evidently  the  ruUng  principle  is,  "  a  little 
wine  for  thy  stomach's  sake "  —  a  little  wine  for  the  sake 
of  your  health,  if  you  find  it  requisite.  What  a  vast 
amount  of  common  sense  is  there  in  the  Bible !  The  more 
one  reads  this  Blessed  Book  the  more  one  feels  what  How- 
ells  said  of  it,  "  It  is  common  sense  inspired."  There  is 
that  in  this  Book  wdiich  so  commends  itself  to  one's  good 
sense,  apart  from  its  inspiration,  that  we  cannot  resist  the 
conclusion  —  if  this  Book  was  not  inspired  by  God,  the 
men  who  wrote  it  left  behind  them  a  more  stupendous  mira- 


148  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

cle  than  any  one  tliey  have  yet  recorded.  The  wine  in  the 
apostle's  days  must  surely  have  been  what  is  called  alcoholic 
wine ;  I  admit  not  like  our  wines,  which,  to  suit  our  very 
depraved  taste  and  appetite,  are  mixed  with  an  enormous 
quantity  of  alcohol.  The  w^ine  in  the  East  had  about  seven 
per  cent,  alcohol ;  our  strongest  wines  have  twenty  per  cent. 
But  then  there  was  some  alcohol :  if  there  was  none,  why 
should  the  apostle  have  said,  "not  given  to  much  wine?" 
He  would  not  say,  "  not  given  to  much  water,"  because  there 
was  no  risk  of  water  doing  any  injury.  The  very  fact  that 
he  limits  the  quantity,  shows  that  the  wine  then  used  was 
alcoholic  or  stimulating,  and  that  it  required  restraint,  regu- 
lation —  not  prohibition.  But  no  doubt  the  less  used  the 
better.  They  that  can  do  without  it  are  best  without  it ; 
and  it  is  a  question  left  open  for  Christian  men  to  discuss, 
whether  the  best  example  is  total  abstinence  from  it,  or  the 
moderate  use  of  it :  they  are  only  wrong  who  base  prohibi- 
tion upon  the  Bible ;  they  who  base  it  on  expediency  take 
fair  ground  that  is  open  to  discussion. 

These  are  the  elements  of  the  Christian  minister,  laid 
down  in  Scripture,  suggested  by  the  consideration  of  the 
ancient  Jewish  priests.  And  you,  the  people,  now  take  the 
minister  as  the  messenger  of  God.  "  Let  a  man  so  account 
of  us  as  ministers  of  Christ,  and  stewards  of  the  mysteries 
of  God."  Secondly,  wait  on  his  instruction.  The  least  you 
can  do  is,  to  listen  to  the  minister.  A  minister  will  always 
preach  better  when  he  speaks  to  a  listening  and  attentive 
auditory ;  and  a  stated  minister  will  always  be  encouraged 
when  he  sees  the  same  places  filled  by  the  same  listeners, 
desirous  to  taste  the  bread,  and  drink  the  water  of  life.  In 
the  next  place,  follow  their  example  as  far  as  they  follow 
Christ.  "  Be  ye  followers  of  me  even  as  I  am  of  Christ." 
"  Be  followers  together  of  me,  and  mark  them  which  Avalk 
so  as  ye  have  us  for  an  example."  And,  again,  pray  for 
them.     The  apostle  frequently,  in  all  his  Epistles,  asks  the 


LEVITICUS    XXI.  149 

prayers  of  the  people  to  whom  he  was  attached,  and  who 
were  attached  to  liim.  In  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  moi-e 
than  once  he  does  so.  "I  beseech  you,  brethren,  for  tlie 
Lord  Jesus  Christ's  sake,  and  for  the  love  of  the  Spirit,  that 
ye  strive  together  with  me  in  your  prayers  for  me."  And 
again,  in  Ephesians,  when  he  bids  them  take  the  whole 
armor  of  God,  he  says,  "  Praying  always  with  all  prayer 
and  supplication  in  the  Spirit,  and  w^atching  thereunto  with 
all  perseverance  and  supplication  for  all  saints  ;  and  for  me, 
that  utterance  may  be  given  unto  me,  that  I  may  open  my 
mouth  boldly,  to  make  known  the  mystery  of  the  Gospel." 
And  pray,  in  the  next  place,  for  the  increase  of  it.  I 
trouble  myself  less  about  ecclesiastical  machinery ;  I  think 
more  of  the  importance  of  Christ's  rule  in  the  midst  of  his 
Church.  If  he  send  forth  laborers  into  the  harvest,  it  mat- 
ters not  whether  layman,  or  people,  or  presbyter  appoint 
them.  Satan  will  be  glad  to  see  Christian  people  wrathful 
with  each  other  about  Church  politics,  if  he  can  only  keep 
them  from  fuliilling  the  grand  precept,  "  Pray  ye  the  Lord 
of  the  harvest,  that  he  will  send  forth  laborers  into  the 
harvest." 

The  Great  Patron  of  the  church  is  in  the  skies.  Those 
whom  he  sends  are  holy  and  true  and  chosen.  Those  that 
enter  unsent,  whatever  excellences  they  have,  want  that 
which  is  vital. 

13* 


CHAPTER    XXII. 

RULES    FOR   THE    MINISTRY   OP   THE    PRIESTS. 

This  chapter  is  so  peculiar  to  the  Jewish  priesthood,  and 
so  entirely  occupied  about  ceremonial  nncleannesses,  that, 
while  it  has  its  place,  its  value,  and  its  use,  it  is  not  for  edi- 
fication to  read  it  in  the  family.  By  stating  the  various 
causes  that  operated  as  ceremonial  impediments  to  the 
priest's  discharge  of  his  sacerdotal  functions,  it  reveals,  on 
the  one  hand,  how  human  nature  has  been  tainted  in  its 
moral  condition  by  the  fall,  and  how  deeply  that  taint  has 
struck  into  the  physical  economy  of  man :  it  shows,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  "  holiness  becometh  the  Lord's  House,"  and 
that  they  should  "be  clean  who  bear  the  vessels  of  the 
Lord." 

The  closing  portions  of  this  chapter  are  occupied  with  the 
regulation  of  the  sacrifices  to  be  offered,  and  require  that 
they  too  should  be  free  from  all  blemish  and  defect.  The 
w^orship  we  offer,  and  the  worshippers  that  offer  it,  should 
be  holiness  to  the  Lord. 

The  only  perfect  priest  was  Christ  Jesus  —  the  first  and 
the  last :  the  only  perfect  sacrifice  ever  offered  was  His.  A 
day  approaches  when  the  whole  company  of  true  believers 
shall  be  presented  to  the  Lord  a  glorious  church,  without 
spot  or  blemish  or  any  such  thing ;  and  all  matter  that  we 
now  see  disinfected  of  its  evil,  and  consecrated  afresh,  shall 
also  be  holiness  to  the  Lord. 
a50) 


CHAPTER    XXIII. 

END  OF  JEWISH  FESTIVALS  —  EFFECTS  OF,  ON   THE  TRIBES  AND  NA- 
TION—  INSPIRATION  —  PASSIVE    THANKFULNESS    FOR    HARVESTS 

PENTECOST — GLEANINGS  FOR  THE  POOR  —  A  MARGIN  FOR  THE 

NEEDY  —  FEAST  OF  TRUMPETS — FEAST  OF  TABERNACLES. 

This  chapter  ought  properly  and  naturally  to  succeed  the 
nineteenth  chapter  of  this  book,  in  which  was  stated  the 
great  fact  of  the  annual  festival  of  atonement,  and  after 
which  follow  properly,  and  in  order,  the  various  feasts  or 
festivals  recorded  in  this  chapter.  In  this  book  we  have 
read,  first  of  all,  rules  for  persons ;  secondly,  for  holy  places  ; 
thirdly,  for  holy  habits ;  and  we  have  now  the  regulations 
laid  down  for  the  government  of  the  children  of  Israel  in  ref- 
erence to  the  appointment  of  their  festivals.  Many  of  the 
laws  contained  in  this  book  are  now,  of  course,  necessarily 
obsolete,  because  their  subjects  are  superseded  by  the  great 
ends  and  objects  of  which  they  were  foreshadows.  But 
many  of  these  laws,  however  minute  they  may  appear  to  us, 
and  however  unnecessary,  because  we  live  in  an  enlightened 
age  where  the  indirect  light  of  Christianity  is  sufficient  al- 
most to  instruct  the  masses  —  were  necessary  then ;  and 
they  have  been,  some  of  them,  at  least,  the  guiding  laA\-s  of 
the  most  enlightened  nations  in  every  age  of  the  world. 
Many  laws  that  were  necessary  for  the  infancy  of  a  profess- 
ino;  church  need  not  be  retained  and  observed  in  the  mature 
years  of  that  church  ;  and  yet  their  importance  in  their  place 
and  for  their  object  cannot  be  overestimated,  and  ought  not 

(151) 


152  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

to  be  liglitlj  regarded.  Many  parts  of  this  book  are  neces- 
sarily for  personal  study ;  other  parts  of  it  were  suitable  for 
the  priests  only ;  but  other  parts  of  it  are  full  of  the  richest 
evangelical  truths  ;  —  it  being  the  Gospel  in  shadow,  just  as 
St.  John  is  the  Gospel  with  life  and  immortality  clearly 
brought  to  light. 

Now  the  Hebrew  word  here  rendered  "  feasts  "  might  with 
much  greater  propriety  be  rendered  "assemblies,"  or  convo- 
cations, or  institutions.  It  was  not  necessarily  a  feast  in  the 
sense  of  a  participation  of  good  things ;  but  it  was  properly 
a  gathering  together  of  the  people  for  the  offering  of  sacrifi- 
cial rites,  in  order  to  impress  upon  their  minds  great  truths, 
and  to  be,  as  it  were,  to  them  the  alphabet  of  that  Gospel 
that  was  to  be  more  fully  revealed.  You  can  see  the  vast 
importance  of  these  institutions  in  two  or  three  points  of 
view ;  in  one  a  moral,  in  another,  in  some  degree,  a  political. 
For  instance,  the  Jews  were  divided  into  twelve  tribes ;  these 
tribes  were,  in  some  degree,  by  that  division  insulated  or 
mechanically  detached  and  separated  from  each  other,  each 
with  pecuhar  interests  ;  but  by  these  great  festivals  or  insti- 
tutions which  occurred  every  year,  at  stated  intervals,  the 
whole  twelve  tribes  came  across  the  geographical  boundaries 
that  severed  them,  and  met  together  around  the  same  altar, 
offering  the  same  sacrifices,  singing  the  same  grand  songs, 
and  worshipping  together  the  same  God  —  the  God  of  Abra- 
ham, of  Isaac,  and  of  Jacob.  And  thus  this  communion  of 
all  the  scattered  tribes  in  one  on  these  several  occasions  was 
calculated  to  break  up  every  idea  of  separation,  and  to  show 
them  they  were  all  the  children  of  one  Blessed  Father,  and 
as  they  were  loved  of  God  they  ought  as  friends  to  love  one 
another.  In  the  second  place,  these  institutions  were  politi- 
cally important  —  for  God  rules  in  a  nation  as  well  as  among 
individuals.  I  have  told  you  often,  that  the  Jewish  race  was 
separated  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  in  order  to  preserve,  in 
all  its  purity,  the  worship  of  the  only  living  and  true  God. 


LEVITICUS   XXIII.  153 

It  was,  therefore,  part  and  parcel  of  the  polity  of  Leviticus, 
as  far  as  polity  was  given  in  it,  to  make  them  depend  for  all 
their  snpplies  as  much  as  possible  upon  internal  resources. 
If  they  had  been  dependent  for  their  corn  upon  foreign  na- 
tions, the  consequence  would  have  been,  they  would  have 
gone  out  and  mingled  with  those  idolatrous  nations,  and 
those  nations,  the  moment  they  came  to  be  at  war  with  the 
children  of  Israel,  would  have  withheld  from  them  that 
bread  which  was  essential  to  their  maintenance  as  a  people, 
and  to  their  separation  and  distinctness  as  a  believing  and  a 
Christian  people.  These  institutions,  therefore,  necessarily 
gave  birth  to  a  vast  amount  of  internal  traffic;  caravans 
coming  across  wide  or  parched  deserts  —  camels,  and  asses, 
and  oxen,  carrying  loads  from  place  to  place,  introduced  a 
sort  of  circulation,  not  of  money,  but  of  that  which  is  the  end 
of  money  —  goods ;  and  the  consequence  was  that  every 
place  was  visited  by  those  that  had  to  sell ;  and  every  one 
that  wanted  found  the  things  that  he  required:  and  thus 
a  sort  of  internal  traific  was  kept  up  amid  all  the  tribes  of 
Israel,  that  made  them  by  one  part  of  the  law  more  inde- 
pendent of  the  will  of  foreigners ;  and,  secondly,  gave  them 
commercial  intercourse  at  home,  sufficient  for  a  nation  in 
that  infant  state  in  which  they  were  at  that  time.  One  can 
see,  therefore,  a  large  amount  of  practical  and  characteristic 
wisdom  disclosed  in  all  these  institutions,  which  shows  the 
highest  inspiration  ;  and  the  inference  from  the  study  of  it 
must  be,  that  a  nomad  and  semi-barbarous  race  —  for  so 
they  were  in  the  desert  —  never  could  have  struck  out  such 
a  masterly  polity,  or  made  the  arrangements  that  are  here 
given.  It  is  far  less  credulous  to  believe  that  God  instituted 
these,  than  that  a  barbarous  race  struck  the  theory  out  of 
their  own  minds. 

Having  seen  the  reason  of  these  institutions,  let  me  notice 
that  in  this  chapter  there  is  given,  first  of  all,  the  passover. 
The  passover  is  described,  as  it  had  been  previously,  in  the 


154  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

fifth  verse  :  "  In  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  first  month  at 
even  is  the  Lord's  passover."  The  Jewish  ecclesiastical 
year  began  with  April  —  the  civil  year  began  with  Septem- 
ber ;  and,  therefore,  the  festival  of  the  passover  was  cele- 
brated in  April,  just  about  the  time  of  the  subsequent  cele- 
bration of  the  Lord's  Supper,  that  now  very  properly  and 
justly  succeeds  it.  After  describing  the  passover,  which  we 
have  had  delineated  and  recorded  in  the  Book  of  Exodus, 
we  have  next  the  festival  of  the  sheaf  of  -first-fruits,  beghi- 
ning  at  the  ninth  verse.  He  tells  them  that  when  they  reap 
the  harvest  "  they  shall  bring  a  sheaf  of  the  first-fruits  of 
their  harvest  unto  the  priest ;  and  he  shall  wave  the  sheaf 
before  the  Lord."  This  was  a  beautiful  institution,  to  teach 
the  Israelite  that  it  Avas  not  the  soil,  nor  the  rain  drops,  nor 
the  sunbeams,  nor  the  dews,  nor  the  skill  of  their  agricul- 
turists, that  they  had  to  thank  for  their  bounteous  produce ; 
but  that  they  must  rise  above  the  sower  and  the  reaper,  and 
see  God  the  good  giver  of  the  golden  harvest,  and  make  his 
praise  the  key-note  of  their  harvest-home.  Thus,  all  Is- 
rael was  to  do  then  what  we  should  do  still  —  praise  God 
for  every  temporal  blessing  that  we  have ;  either  for  the 
bounteous  harvest,  or  for  health,  or  for  profits  in  trade,  or 
for  success  in  business.  Whatever  good  thing  passes  to  you 
in  the  providence  of  God,  is  a  voice  proclaiming  in  the  de- 
sert, "  Praise  ye  the  Lord." 

After  this,  we  have  the  Feast  of  Pentecost.  The  Feast 
of  Pentecost  was  to  be  fifty  days  —  seven  weeks,  that  is, 
seven  times  seven,  forty-nine,  and  a  day  over,  fifty — fifty  days 
after  the  feast  we  have  just  now  referred  to.  It  was  made 
much  more  of  by  the  Jews  than  was  originally  meant  of  God, 
because  it  did  happen  that  the  fiftieth  day  was  the  day  of 
the  giving  of  the  law  on  Mount  Sinai ;  and  though  it  was  not 
intended  to  commemorate  that  event,  the  Jews  attached  so 
much  importance  to  the  event,  that  they  called  the  Pentecost 
"  the  day  of  the  commission  or  giving  of  the  law." 


LEVITICUS    XXIII.  155 

After  this  we  have  a  very  beautiful  provision  —  the  glean- 
ings that  are  to  be  left  for  the  poor ;  that  Avhen  you  reap 
your  corn  you  are  to  take  care  not  to  cut  down  every  thing, 
but  to  leave  a  little  for  the  poor :  "  When  ye  reap  the  har- 
vest of  your  land,  thou  shalt  not  make  clean  riddance  of  the 
corners  of  thy  field,  neither  shalt  thou  gather  any  gleaning 
of  thy  harvest :  thou  shalt  leave  them  unto  the  poor,  and 
to  the  stranger :  I  am  the  Lord  your  God."  I  think  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  traits  in  the  provision  and  economy  of 
God  in  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  is  the  constant  refer- 
ence to  the  poor.  The  permanency  of  the  rich  and  the  poor 
is  what  Christ  himself  has  declared ;  there  will  be  rich  and 
poor  as  long  as  this  dispensation  lasts  ;  and  any  attempt  to 
break  down  the  distinction  entails  calamity  on  the  nation 
that  makes  it.  The  distinction  does  exist,  and  will  exist  as 
long  as  men  live,  and  intellectual  energies  differ  in  degree  — > 
for  the  fact  is,  men  are  not  all  equal ;  they  may  talk  as  they 
will  that  all  men  are  equal.  In  one  sense,  before  God,  all 
men  are  equal ;  but  in  another  respect  they  are  not.  One 
man  has  more  physical  energy  or  more  mental  energy  than 
another.  One  man  has  more  skill  than  another,  one  man 
more  activity  than  another ;  and  several  things  are  constantly 
keeping  up  that  broad  and  palpable  distinction  between 
them  that  have,  and  them  that  have  not.  But  just  as  the 
Israelite  reaper  left  some  ears  of  corn  for  the  poor  and  for 
the  stranger,  so  you,  in  estimating  your  labors,  which  are  to 
you  for  all  practical  purposes  your  corn  fields,  in  arranging 
your  profits,  your  gains,  your  losses,  ought  to  have  a  balance 
or  a  margin  for  the  benefit  of  the  poor,  the  destitute,  and  the 
needy.  God  especially  blessed  a  nation  that  took  care  of 
the  poor ;  and  God  still  provides  for  and  pronounces  blessed 
those  that  consider  the  poor.  I  know  that  what  are  called 
"  poor's  rates  "  are  extremely  objectionable ;  because,  when 
you  pay  your  poor's  rates  you  give  a  tax,  and  Avhen  the 
poor  get  in  the  workhouse,  the  bread  that  it  buys  they  take 


156  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

it  as  a  right ;  and  the  consequence  is,  all  benevolence  on 
your  part  is  quenched,  and  all  gratitude  on  the  part  of  the 
poor  is  ruined  also.  But  then,  such  is  the  hardness  of  the 
human  heart  in  so  many  cases,  that  a  wise  and  merciful  gov- 
ernment is  bound  to  make  the  law,  and  to  compel  that  as  a 
right  which  many  would  much  rather  give  as  the  act  of  be- 
nevolence and  kindness. 

But  because  you  do  pay  poor's  rates  you  still  must  leave 
a  margin  to  give  something ;  for  those  rates  are  not  yet  in- 
tolerable ;  and  on  all  occasions  we  should  be  delighted  that 
we  have  an  opportunity  of  making  the  heart  of  the  widow 
rejoice,  and  the  orphan  sing  for  joy.  There  is  an  opportu- 
nity for  this  in  what  I  have  seen  noticed  in  many  of  the 
papers  in  the  present  day,  —  the  destitution  of  soldiers'  wives, 
and  I  hope  that  those  that  see  the  opportunity  will  attend  to 
it.  Those  soldiers  whom  we  have  sent  abroad  to  fight  the 
battles  of  our  country  have  left  behind  them  wives  and  chil- 
dren, so  far  as  I  can  gather  from  public  sources  of  infor- 
mation, almost  destitute.  Now,  I  think  it  will  be  a  great  dis- 
grace to  our  nation,  if  we  leave  them  so ;  and  I  hope  that 
those  who  have  the  means  of  contributing  to  this  object  will 
avail  themselves  of  it,  and  feel  it  not  a  tax  exacted  from 
them,  but  a  happy  occasion  of  exercising  the  highest  benefi- 
cence towards  those,  whom  the  brave  and  wilhng  defenders 
of  our  country,  its  institutions  and  its  rights,  have  been  com- 
pelled by  their  position  to  leave  behind  them.  No  man  ever 
died  poorer  because  he  gave  to  the  poor  ;  and  I  have  noticed 
that  the  most  unhappy  men  are  the  men  that  are  always  get- 
ting, never  giving.  If  you  want  to  be  really  happy,  give  ; 
if  you  wish  to  be  thoroughly  wretched,  withhold  what  is  meet. 
There  is  a  great  law  which  is  universally  true,  "  It  is  more 
blessed,"  or  there  is  more  happiness,  "to  give  than  to  re- 
ceive." 

We  have  after  this  the  Feast  of  Trumpets,  which  began 
the  civil  year  of  the  Jews.    And  how  very  striking  the  thought 


LEVITICUS    XXIII.  l/)? 

that  the  trumpets  should  sound  at  the  commencement  of  a 
new  year,  and  that  the  name  of  God  should,  upon  that  occa- 
sion, be  blessed  and  praised.  The  Jews,  even  at  the  present 
day,  are  in  the  habit  of  celebrating  this;  they  say,  "  Glory 
be  to  God  the  Father,  hosannah ;  "  and  then,  "  Glory  be 
to  the  Redeemer,  hosannah  ;  glory  be  to  the  Seeker,  ho- 
sannah,"—  a  sort  of  foreshadow  of  the  Trinity,  or  a  Tri- 
une Jehovah,  still  preserved  among  them.  We  have  next 
the  Feast  of  Tabernacles,  to  one  of  the  main  rites  of  which 
I  will  direct  your  minds  in  the  sermon  from  the  Gospel  of 
St.  John  ;  where  they  dwelt  in  booths  or  tents,  to  commem- 
orate the  fact  that  they  dwelt  in  tents  in  the  desert.  The 
Jews  of  modern  times  preserve  this  idea ;  and  on  this  day 
they  collect  plants  of  citron  and  the  palm-tree,  and  the  small 
branches  of  them  they  carry  in  their  hands,  and  walk  in 
procession  round  the  reading-desk  of  their  synagogue ;  as  a 
faint  fragmental  remain  of  the  one  ancient  and  illustrious 
institution. 

14 


CHAPTER    XXIV. 

INFANT  CHRISTIANITY  —  GROWTH  —  OIL  FOR  THE  LAMPS  —  MANY 
CONGREGATIONS  ONE  CHURCH — A  CHRISTIAN — TRUE  CHURCH 
—  SIIEWBREAD  —  THE  BLASPHEMER — CONSCIENCE  AND  CIVIL  IN- 
TERFERENCE  CAPITAL  PUNISHMENT — LEX  TALIONIS. 

It  is  most  important  that  we  should  constantly  bear  in  mind 
that  the  Christians  of  the  Levitical  economy  were  the  infants, 
if  I  may  so  speak,  or  the  youths,  of  the  Christian  dispensa- 
tion. They  needed  to  be  constantly  taught  by  visible  and 
impressive  symbols,  each  symbol  the  pedestal  of  a  great 
and  precious  truth,  and  inculcating  that  truth  through  the 
senses,  and  thereby  making  the  deej^est  and  most  permanent 
impression  on  the  mind.  It  is  quite  certain  that  whatever 
defects  may  exist  in  the  Christian  Church  now,  in  mnumer- 
able  particulars  it  has  grown  in  purity,  in  wisdom,  and  in 
capacity  of  receiving  the  truths  that  are  revealed  in  this 
blessed  book.  Among  the  very  first  symbols  appointed  in 
this  chapter,  is  the  pure  beaten  oil  for  the  lamps  that  were 
"  to  burn  continually  without  the  vail  of  the  testimony,  in  the 
tabernacle  of  the  congregation."  Xow  we  find  that  John  in 
the  Apocalypse  uses  the  very  imagery  that  is  here,  to  set  forth 
the  completeness,  the  unity,  and  yet  the  variety  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  The  seven  candlesticks,  or  the  seven  branches 
of  the  one  candlestick,  are  seven  churches  ;  all  the  seven 
knit  together  in  one  golden  stem  ;  and  through  that  stem 
rushing  into  each  tube,  and  supplying  each  lamp  with  the 
most  precious  and  perfumed  oil,  beaten  oil  rising  from  the 
(158) 


LEVITICUS    XXIV.  159 

stem  and  enabling  it  thus  to  burn.  Now  we  liave  in  (hat 
image  the  most  complete  exhibition  of  the  variety  of  tlie 
Christian  Church.  It  is  not  one  stem,  there  are  seven  stems. 
There  is  not  one  visible  church,  but  many  visible  congrega- 
tions, all  of  them,  greater  or  less,  constituting  together  the 
one  universal  or  Catholic  Church.  It  was  never  meant  that 
there  should  be  but  one  visible  economy,  but  many  differ- 
ing economies ;  having  their  unity  not  in  the  uniformity  of 
A  to  B,  and  B  to  C,  but  in  the  unity  of  all  with  the  central 
stem  to  which  they  are  all  knit.  So  is  it  now  in  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  The  discipline  of  the  church  is  temporary, 
but  the  doctrines  of  the  church  are  eternal.  In  ecclesiastical 
polity,  it  has  varied,  and  it  will  vary ;  in  essential  attach- 
ment to  the  Saviour,  trust  in  his  sacrifice,  love  of  vital  and 
essential  truth,  it  has  been  one  in  every  age.  The  oil  that 
supplied  it  was  oil  that  rose  from  the  stem,  penetrated  the 
branches,  and  thus  fed  the  flame.  I  need  not  remind  you 
how  that  very  image  is  constantly  used  to  denote  the  Holy 
Spirit  of  God.  "  Anointed  with  the  Spirit ; "  and  again, 
"Ye  have  an  unction  from  the  Holy  One."  The  name 
"  Christ "  is  "  The  Anointed  One  ; "  and  the  name  Christian 
literally  "  a  person  consecrated  by  oil."  But  what  oil  ?  The 
Holy  Spirit  of  God ;  of  whom  oil  is  in  the  ancient  economy 
the  expressive  symbol. 

Then  the  object  of  this  candlestick  was  to  give  light  in 
the  tabernacle.  So  the  object  of  a  church  is  to  give  light ; 
and  if  it  fail  to  give  light  it  is  worthless.  The  best  candle- 
stick would  not  be  that  which  gave  least  light,  but  most ; 
and  no  exquisite  beauty  of  its  chasing,  no  amount  of  gold  in 
its  composition,  would  be  any  compensation  for  its  failing  to 
do  that  which  is  its  end  and  its  mission,  to  give  light  to  them 
that  are  in  the  household.  Better  a  bright  light  that  will 
enable  you  to  read  upon  a  brass  or  an  iron  candlestick,  than 
a  dim  burning  one  upon  a  golden  or  a  silver  one.  Better  a 
church  that  lights  people  to  heaven,  though  it  have  many 


160  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

imperfection?,  tlian  a  churcli  all  splendor  and  magnificence 
tiiat  does  not  show  a  person  across  the  road  even.  Tlie  very^ 
end  and  object  of  a  Christian  is  to  be  a  light ;  and  that  is 
the  best  church  that  casts  the  light  upon  the  truths  of  the 
Bible,  the  problems  of  the  soul,  the  hopes  of  the  Christian, 
the  way  that  leads  to  glory. 

After  the  representation  of  the  candlestick  we  have  the 
bread  for  a  memorial  before  the  Lord.  This  bread  consisted 
of  twelve  loaves  upon  a  table  of  gold  ;  and  had  two  mean- 
ings ;  probably  one  was  to  bring  the  produce  of  the  fields  of 
the  earth  under  the  roof  of  the  sanctuary  of  God,  that  it 
might  be  seen  that  the  same  God  who  saves  the  soul  and 
feeds  it  with  living  bread,  also  supplies  the  wants  of  the 
body,  and  makes  the  corn  to  grow  upon  the  earth  to  bring 
forth  abundance  for  man  and  for  beast.  Or,  secondly,  it 
may  have  been  designed  to  show  that  there  was  a  higher 
want  than  the  want  of  the  bread  that  perisheth ;  that  there 
is  in  man's  soul  a  need,  a  hunger  for  the  bread  that  endur- 
eth  unto  life  eternal ;  which  the  viands  of  nature  never 
could  furnish,  which  God  must  send  as  he  sent  the  manna — 
directly  and  immediately  from  heaven.  And  lastly,  it  was 
used  to  be  food  for  Aaron  and  the  priests;  every  thing 
being  consecrated  in  that  sanctuary,  and  associated  in 
some  way  with  God,  and  the  hopes  of  heaven  and  of 
eternity. 

Then,  in  the  midst  of  this  statement,  there  is  intro- 
duced —  though  one  cannot  exactly  see  its  connection  —  an 
incident,  and  that  incident  fraught  with  important  instruc- 
tion. But  what  is  blaspheming  the  name  of  God  ?  It  is 
attributing  to  God  wickedness,  and  sin,  and  crime.  The 
blasphemy  against  the  Holy  Ghost,  we  read  in  the  New 
Testament,  was  asserting  that  the  miracles  which  Jesus  did 
by  the  Spirit  were  done  by  Satan,  the  prince  of  the  power 
of  the  air.  And  this  blasphemy  in  Israel  had  two  aspects. 
First,  it  was  a  spiritual  offence  to  be  visited  on  the  soul,  if 


LEVITICUS    XXIV.  161 

persisted  in,  at  the  judgment-seat ;  but,  secondly,  it  was  a 
civil  act  of  treason  against  the  King  of  kings  :  the  Jews 
living  under  a  theocracy,  every  thing  that  was  done  against 
God  was  not  only  an  act  of  the  conscience  against  the  Lord 
of  the  conscience,  but  an  act  of  a  subject  who  was  in  re- 
bellion against  his  only  King  of  glory  and  supreme  majesty. 
You  can  see  therefore  that  the  visiting  of  blasphemy  with 
civil  penalties,  was  in  some  degree  peculiar  to  that  economy. 
I  am  not  lawyer  enough  to  know,  but  I  believe  that  in 
many,  if  not  in  most  modern  nations,  blasphemy  in  its  re- 
volting shapes  has  been  visited  even  with  civil  penalties. 
Except  as  an  offence  against  others,  perhaps  it  should  not 
be  so ;  whatever  relates  to  the  conscience  is  between  that 
conscience  and  God.  But  whenever  a  man  makes  his  rehg- 
ion  a  pretext,  or  his  conscientious  convictions  an  excuse 
for  injuring,  insulting,  and  offending  others,  then  it  is  time,  I 
think,  that  interference  should  take  place.  It  is  all  very 
well  to  say,  "  I  ought  not  to  be  punished  for  this,  because  it 
is  my  conscientious  conviction."  Why,  if  a  number  of  Hin- 
doos were  to  come  here,  and  if  they  were  to  propose  to  burn 
a  widow  on  the  funeral  pyre  of  her  husband  at  Charing- 
Cross,  I  venture  to  assert  that  the  authorities  would  very 
properly  interfere.  But  if  the  Hindoo  w^ere  to  say,  "  That 
is  part  of  my  religion."  "  Very  true,"  the  magistrate  would 
say,  "  it  is  so ;  but  the  laws  of  England  say  it  shall  not  be 
done ;  and  that  is  an  end  of  it,"  and  very  justly  so.  So 
again,  if  a  person  came  here  from  the  Pope  of  Rome,  and 
said,  "I  am  governor  of  Essex  and  Middlesex,"  and  on 
your  objecting,  he  were  to  say,  "  That  is  part  of  my  relig- 
ion ;  I  must  have  a  diocese  here,"  I  must  directly  tell  him, 
"  The  laws  of  England  say  it  is  not  so,  and  that  it  shall  not 
be  done ; "  and  he  cannot  be  a  loyal  subject  who  would  per- 
sist in  doing  what  the  laws  strictly  and  simply  prohibit.  So 
that  the  moment,  you  observe,  that  one's  conscientious  con- 
viction becomes  no  longer  an  enjoyment  of  his  own,  but  an 

14* 


162  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

inconvenience  to  his  neiglibor,  it  is  right  for  the  sake  of 
society  that  the  conscientious  conviction  should  be  kept 
within  its  own  bounds,  and  restricted  to  its  own  proper 
orbit.  So  now,  blasphemy  was  in  Israel,  not  simply  a  moral 
offence,  though,  as  I  showed  you,  even  in  that  light  it  may 
become  an  offence  to  the  public,  but  it  was  also  a  civil 
offence  —  disloyalty  and  rebellion  against  the  King  of 
kings. 

There  are,  next,  laws  enacted  for  certain  crimes.  He 
that  kills  a  beast  shall  make  it  good ;  he,  however,  that  kills 
a  man  must  be  put  to  death.  I  cannot,  I  must  say,  agree 
with  those  who  assert  that  capital  punishment  is  forbidden 
in  Scripture.  I  do  think,  on  the  contrary,  for  certain 
crimes  —  for  the  crime  of  murder  for  instance,  capital  pun- 
ishment is  repeatedly  sanctioned  in  Scripture.  It  was  sanc- 
tioned at  the  Flood ;  and  it  does  not  seem  to  be  a  law  pecu- 
liar to  that  economy,  but  universal.  It  is  based  upon  the 
fact  that  to  kill  a  man  is  the  greatest  outrage  upon  the  image 
of  God ;  and  it  is  not  a  Levitical,  but  a  universal  law,  that 
"  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall  his  blood  be 
shed."  At  the  same  time,  I  think  that  it  is  the  only  crime 
which  should  be  so  visited. 

After  this  we  read  in  the  twentieth  verse,  "  There  shall 
be  breach  for  breach,  eye  for  eye,  tooth  for  tooth."  Now 
some  persons  Avill  say  this  contradicts  another  and  equally 
inspired  part  of  the  Bible.  Our  blessed  Lord,  you  will  all 
recollect,  in  Matthew  v.,  says  that  this  shall  not  be  the  case. 
"  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said,  An  eye  for  an  eye, 
and  a  tooth  for  a  tooth :  but  I  say  unto  you,  That  ye  resist 
not  evil :  but  whosoever  shall  smite  thee  on  thy  right  cheek, 
turn  to  him  the  other  also.  And  if  any  man  will  sue  thee 
at  the  law,  and  take  away  thy  coat,  let  him  have  thy  cloak 
also.  And  whosoever  shall  compel  thee  to  go  a  mile,  go 
with  him  twain."  Now,  how  do  we  explain  the  apparent 
contradiction  ?     This  explains  it.     The  eye  for  the  eye,  and 


LEVITICUS   XXIV.  163 

the  tooth  for  the  tooth,  was  the  civil  economy  of  Israel 
under  a  theocracy,  a  Divine  magistrate ;  tlie  law  for  public 
offences  carried  out  by  the  public  magistrate,  inflicted  in  a 
public  manner,  was  "  an  eye  for  an  eye,"  or  the  lex  talionis, 
a  tooth  for  a  tooth,  and  so  on.  But  our  blessed  Lord  is 
speaking  here  of  what  Christians  are  to  be  with  one  another  ; 
and  he  says,  in  your  dealings  one  with  another,  the  lex 
tallonis  is  not  to  apply ;  it  must  not  be  an  eye  for  an  eye  ; 
but  it  must  be,  in  individuals  dealing  with  each  other,  "  He 
that  will  take  away  thy  coat,  let  him  have  thy  cloak  also. 
And  whosoever  shall  compel  thee  to  go  a  mile,  go  with  him 
twain."  Here  it  is  a  public  civil  law,  carried  out  and  in- 
flicted by  the  public  magistrate  ;  in  Matthew  v.  it  is  private 
individual  intercourse,  in  which,  and  in  course  of  Avhich,  no 
such  principle  is  to  be  carried  into  practice,  no  such  law  to 
be  acted  on.  It  is  one  thing  for  a  magistrate  to  inflict  the 
legal  penalty  for  an  offence ;  it  is  quite  another  thing  for  a 
private  individual  to  take  the  law  into  his  own  hands  and 
profess  to  help  that  law.  So  that  you  observe  passages  that 
seem  to  be  in  antagonism,  are  found  when  looked  at  in  their 
proper  light  to  be  in  harmony.  So,  again,  that  other  pas- 
sage which  those  excellent  Christians,  called  Friends,  misin- 
terpret :  "  Thou  shalt  not  swear,  but  let  thy  yea  be  yea,  and 
thy  nay,  nay."  Under  the  ancient  economy  they  were  to 
swear,  if  before  a  magistrate  and  so  required :  and  our  Lord 
does  not  repeal  that ;  but  he  siays,  in  your  private,  personal 
intercourse  with  each  other  as  Christians,  you  are  not  to  try 
to  make  yourselves  believed  by  backing  it  with  that  vulgar 
thing,  profane  swearing,  an  appeal  to  God,  or  an  oath ;  but 
you  are  to  say,  it  is  so,  or  not  so ;  and  the  man  that  will  not 
believe  your  word,  depend  upon  it  will  not  believe  it  if 
oaths  or  profane  swearing  are  mixed  with  it.  Our  Lord 
does  not  say,  you  shall  not  take  an  oath  before  a  magistrate ; 
nothing  of  the  kind  ;  but  what  he  says  is,  that  in  your  pri- 


164  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

vate  intercourse  you  are  not  to  do  so.  He  does  not  say  that 
those  laws  of  the  Jews  are  repealed  in  reference  to  legal 
enactments ;  but  in  your  private  intercourse  with  each  other 
it  is  to  be  love  for  hatred,  coals  of  fire  upon  the  head ;  over- 
coming evil  with  good. 


CHAPTER    XXV. 

THE   JUBILEE — PROVISION   AGAINST   MONOPOLY  —  BALANCE  OF  SO- 
CIETY—  INSTALMENTS  —  THE    FUTURE    REST. 

This  chapter  is  one  of  those  merciful  provisions  that  are 
so  frequently  scattered  over  the  ancient  economy  of  God ; 
and  indicate  as  institutions  in  that  uncultivated  age,  not  the 
invention  of  man,  but  the  revelation  of  Him  who  is  full  of 
goodness,  and  tender  mercy,  and  forbearance,  and  forgive- 
ness to  the  sins  of  men.  The  arrangement  made  in  this 
chapter  was  to  the  following  effeat.  Every  seventh  year 
was  to  be  what  is  called  a  "jubilee "  year,  so  called  from 
the  sounding  of  the  trumpet  that  announced  it.  Then 
every  seven  times  seventh  year,  or  seven  sevens,  was  to  be 
the  great  jubilee.  In  the  seventh  year  the  ground  was  to 
lie  fallow ;  there  was  to  be  no  toil,  no  sowing,  no  reaping ; 
but  enough  was  provided  by  God's  special  providence  in  the 
sixth  year  to  last  through  the  seventh,  and  to  enable  them 
to  sow  in  the  eighth,  and  yet  to  live  upon  the  food  that  they 
had  laid  up  in  their  granaries,  and  their  store,  in  the  pre- 
vious years'  preparation  for  it.  Bush  thus  describes  the 
sabbatical  year :  — 

"The  prominent  circumstances  which  distinguished  the 
sabbatical  year  from  common  years  may  be  thus  enumer- 
ated. (1.)  All  agricultural  operations  were  to  be  suspended, 
and  the  land  was  to  lie  fallow.  The  whole  country  must,  in 
fact,  have  been  thrown  into  one  vast  common,  free  to  the 
poor  and  the  stranger,  to  the  domestic  cattle  and  the  game ; 

(1G5) 


166  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

for  tlie  proprietor  of  the  land  not  only  ceased  to  cultivate  it, 
but  had  no  exclusive  right  to  its  spontaneous  prodace,  al- 
though he  might  share  in  it.  (2.)  The  produce  of  every 
sixth  year  was  promised  to  be  such  as  would  support  them 
till  the  harvest  of  the  ninth  year;  a  circumstance  which 
would  clearly  demonstrate  a  particular  providence  in  respect 
to  the  institution.  (3.)  It  was  a  season  of  release  from  debts 
due  from  one  Israelite  to  another ;  but  not  those  due  from 
foreigners  to  Israelites.  (4.)  Every  Hebrew  slave  had  the 
option  of  being  released  this  year  from  his  servitude.  At 
least  this  is  often  inferred  from  Ex.  xxi.  2 ;  but  it  will  be 
seen  by  reference  to  the  Note  on  that  passage  to  be  quite 
doubtful  whether  the  seventh  year  there  mentioned  was  not 
the  seventh  year  of  his  actual  service,  rather  than  the  sabbat- 
ical year.  (5.)  In  the  sabbatical  year,  at  the  feast  of  taber- 
nacles, they  were  enjoined  to  read  the  law  in  the  hearing  of 
all  the  people.  This  was  called  by  the  Rabbinical  writers 
*  the  reading  of  the  king,'  because  tradition  made  the  king 
himself  the  reader  on  this  occasion. 

*'  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  this  year  of  rest  to  the  land 
was  necessarily  spent  by  the  Hebrews  in  idleness.  They 
could  fish,  hunt,  take  care  of  their  bees  and  flocks,  repair 
their  buildings  and  furniture,  manufacture  clothes,  and  carry 
on  their  usual  traffic." 

Then  the  great  jubilee  year  was  to  be  the  fiftieth  year ; 
and  on  the  forty-ninth  God  was  to  give  them  such  increase 
that  they  should  have  enough  for  the  fiftieth,  and  enough  to 
last  them  through  the  fifty-first,  while  they  were  sowing  in 
its  spring  time,  to  make  ready  for  the  fifty-second  year. 
You  will  see  at  once,  that  here  was  a  clear  and  unmistakable 
evidence,  of  which  the  senses  must  have  taken  cognizance, 
of  the  providential  presence  of  God,  repeated  to  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  every  seventh  year ;  the  fruits  of  the  sixth, 
bearing  testimony  to  them  of  his  presence,  and  proving  the 
reality,  not  only  of  the  existence,  but  the  providential  gov- 


LEVITICUS    XXV.  1G7 

crnment,  mid  fiiitliful  promises,  of  God.  Then  natural  lil'c 
was  a  miraculous  one.  In  the  fiftieth  year  the  great  trumpet 
was  to  sound,  every  slave  was  to  be  set  free,  every  forfeited 
estate  was  to  be  restored,  every  one  that  had  lost  power  was 
to  be  reinstated,  if  not  in  his  former,  at  least  in  suitable  cir- 
cumstances ;  an  arrangement  the  end  and  drift  of  which,  as 
we  can  easily  see,  was  to  prevent  excessive  accumulation  of 
property  in  the  few,  and  the  excessive  impoverishment  of  the 
multitude  about  them.  It  was  a  special  dispensation  for  a 
great,  ultimate,  and  glorious  purpose;  such  arrangements 
were  necessary  to  equalize  and  balance  society  in  its  infant 
state,  and  to  prevent  those  terrible  results  which,  if  not  an- 
ticipated or  corrected  in  time,  will  in  any  country  end  in  the 
most  disastrous  issues.  Wrongs  long  unrighted  generate,  in 
the  sense  of  a  people's'  wrongs,  those  passions  which  result 
in  a  revolution.  Now,  to  prevent  any  thing  of  this  kind, 
God  laid  down  wise  laws,  which  were  the  equipoise  and  bal- 
ance of  social  life,  and  tended  to  prevent  the  discontent  of 
the  many,  the  selfishness  of  the  few;  and  to  put  right  in  so 
many  j'cars  whatever  had  gone  wrong  in  the  social  and  po- 
litical economy  of  that  people.  Bush  gives  the  following 
description  of  the  jubilee  :  — 

"  (1.)  As  in  the  sabbatical  year,  so  in  this,  the  people 
were  neither  to  sow  nor  to  reap,  and  the  spontaneous  prod- 
ucts of  the  earth  were  to  be  accounted  common  property. 
Thus  there  were  two  years  at  every  jubilee,  when  the  Jews 
neither  sowed  nor  reaped ;  namely,  the  jubilee  and  the  year 
before,  which  was  always  a  sabbatical  year ;  and  hence  we 
see  the  reason  why  the  promise  of  support,  given  in  Lev. 
XXV.  20-22,  was  from  the  sixth  till  the  harvest  of  the  ninth 
year.  "We  have  only  two  passages  of  Scripture  where  this 
promise  is  alluded  to,  namely,  2  Kings  xix.  29,  and  Isa. 
xxxvii.  30. 

"  (2.)  The  second  thing  remarkable  in  the  year  of  jubilee 
was,  that  all  the  lands  which  had  been  sold  by  one  Hebrew 


168  SCRirTURE    READINGS. 

to  another  had  a  reference  to  this,  being  valued  according  to 
its  proximity  or  remoteness,  in  order  to  their  being  restored 
in  that  year ;  or  might  be  redeemed  sooner  by  giving  to  the 
owner  a  proper  compensation. 

"  (o.)  All  sales  of  houses  in  the  country  were  returned 
likewise  at  that  time,  or  could  have  been  redeemed  sooner ; 
but  all  dwelling-houses  in  walled  cities,  unless  redeemed 
within  a  year,  remained  for  ever  with  the  possessor,  except 
in  the  case  of  houses  belonging  to  the  Levites,  which  might 
have  been  redeemed  at  any  time,  although  in  vralled  cities ; 
and  if  not  redeemed,  returned  to  them  again  as  a  matter  of 
course  in  the  year  of  jubilee. 

"  (4.)  All  Israelites  who  on  account  of  poverty  had  sold 
themselves,  that  is  to  say  their  services,  to  Israelites,  were 
not  to  be  reckoned  as  bond,  but  as  hired  servants,  and  were 
to  return  unto  their  families  and  fathers'  possessions  in  the 
year  of  jubilee. 

"  (5.)  All  poor  Israelites  who  on  account  of  poverty  had 
sold  themselves  to  proselytes  were  to  be  accounted  hired 
servants,  and  might  be  redeemed  at  any  time  by  their  rela- 
tives or  themselves ;  but  if  not  redeemed,  were  to  obtain 
their  liberty  at  the  jubilee. 

"  (6.)  As  the  Jewish  kings  had  commonly  much  in  their 
power,  they  were  expressly  forbidden,  on  the  one  hand,  to 
seize  the  possession  of  any  Israelite  as  a  provision  for  their 
family,  or  on  the  other  to  squander  the  royal  domains  on 
favorites,  as  that  would  have  lessened  the  patrimony  of  the 
crown  ;  and  if  any  such  grants  were  at  any  time  made,  they 
reverted,  of  course,  to  the  original  proprietors  in  the  year  of 
jubilee. 

"  Such  was  the  nature  of  the  Jewish  jubilee ;  but  we  do 
not  find  that  any  particular  sacrifices  were  appointed,  nor 
even  that  reading  of  the  law  which  w^as  enjoined  in  the  sab- 
batical year ;  neither  is  it  clear  at  what  hour  of  the  day  of 
annual  expiation  the  silver  trumpets  sounded  to  announce  its 


LEVITICUS   XXV.  169 

coniraencemcnt.  It  is  i^robable,  however,  that  it  was  in  the 
evening,  after  the  high-priest  had  entered  tlie  most  holy 
place,  the  scape-goat  had  been  sent  into  the  wilderness,  and 
the  people,  in  full  concert  in  the  temple,  had  been  praising 
the  Lord  for  his  goodness,  and  because  his  mercy  endure th 
for  ever.  Imagination  may  conceive,  but  it  is  beyond  the 
power  of  language  to  describe,  the  general  burst  of  joy  that 
would  pervade  the  land,  when  the  poor  Israelites  tasted  again 
the  sweets  of  liberty,  and  returned  to  their  possessions,  their 
families,  and  friends.  In  vain  would  sleep  invite  them  to 
repose  —  their  hearts  would  be  too  full  to  feel  the  lassitude 
of  nature,  and  the  night  would  be  spent  in  gratitude  and 
praise.  What  a  lively  emblem  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ, 
which  is  peculiarly  addressed  to  the  poor,  which  is  fitted  to 
heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  give  deliverance  to  the  captives, 
the  opening  of  the  prison  doors  to  them  that  are  bound,  and 
to  preach  unto  all  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord ! " 

But  while  all  this  was  a  special  provision  for  the  temporal 
comfort  of  the  Jewish  race,  and  is  not  a  law  obligatory  upon 
us,  the  spirit  of  it  cannot  be  too  richly  infused  into  the  laws 
of  every  land,  or  too  fully  pervade  the  enactments  of  every 
community.  There  is  much  in  the  spirit  and  in  the  letter 
of  Leviticus  precious :  you  must  notice,  through  the  whole 
of  this  blessed  book,  that  deep  sympathy  with  the  poor,  that 
foresight  of  their  wants,  and  provision  for  their  ignorance ; 
that  beautiful  precedent  of  lifting  up  the  poor,  and  needy, 
and  oppressed,  and  preventing  their  unrighteous  sufferings, 
which  has  never  been  so  fully  exhibited  in  the  history  of 
modern  nations.  It  is  only  v^here  this  spirit  is  most  exhib- 
ited that  society  flourishes  in  its  highest  degree.  Another 
point  of  view,  however,  in  which  we  are  to  look  at  these  in- 
stitutions is,  as  the  great  type  of  what  is  yet  to  be.  Our 
blessed  Lord  evidently  applies  it  in  this  way,  or  rather  the 
prophet  applies  it  first,  and  then  our  Lord  quotes  it.  In 
Isaiah  Ixi.  we  are  told,  "  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon 


170  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

me ;  because  the  Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tid- 
ings imto  the  meek ;  he  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the  broken- 
hearted, to  proclaim  hberty  to  the  captive,  and  the  opening 
of  the  prison  to  them  that  are  bound ;  to  proclaim  the  ac- 
ceptable year  of  the  Lord."  And  you  recollect  in  the  Gos- 
pel of  St.  Luke,  the  fourth  chapter,  at  the  sixteenth  verse, 
our  blessed  Lord  "  went  into  the  synagogue  on  the  sabbath 
day,  and  stood  up  for  to  read.  And  there  was  delivered 
unto  him  the  book  of  the  prophet  Esaias.  And  when  he 
had  opened  the  book,  he  found  the  place  where  it  was  writ- 
ten. The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  he  hath 
anointed  me  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  poor ;  he  hath  sent 
me  to  heal  the  broken-hearted,  to  preach  deliverance  to  the 
captives,  and  recovering  of  sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liber- 
ty them  that  are  bruised,  to  preach  the  acceptable  year  of 
the  Lord.  And  he  closed  the  book,  and  he  gave  it  again  to 
the  minister,  and  sat  down.  And  the  eyes  of  all  them  that 
were  in  the  synagogue  Avere  fastened  on  him.  And  he  be- 
gan to  say  unto  them,  This  day  is  this  Scripture  fulfilled  in 
your  ears."  Now  I  do  not  believe  that  the  great  year  of  ju- 
bilee was  then  fulfilled.  The  sound  of  its  approach  was 
given ;  individual  blessings  preached  by  Christ,  to  such  as 
received  them  made  jubilees  in  individual  hearts;  till  the 
fiftieth  year,  or  rather  the  seventh  millennary  of  the  world, 
shall  arrive,  when  what  is  now  the  possession,  and  privilege, 
and  glory,  of  the  few,  shall  be  the  privilege  and  the  enjoy- 
ment and  happy  experience  of  all  mankind.  These  rests  of 
the  earth  were  instalments  and  foretastes  of  her  last  rest ; 
when  all  creation  shall  enjoy  its  everlasting  sabbath ;  and 
its  groans,  its  travail,  and  its  expectancy  shall  cease ;  and 
the  Prince  of  Peace  shall  reign  from  sea  to  sea,  and  all 
creation  under  His  reign  shall  be  blessed  and  made  happy 
in  him. 

These  recurring  remedial  provisions  all  indicate  an  abnor- 
mal condition  of  the  earth  at  present,  or  a  state  of  disaster, 


LEVITICUS    XXV.  171 

of  barrcnnesp,  and  disease ;  but  they  nevertheless  carry  for- 
ward the  hopes  of  the  people  of  God  to  that  pledged  and 
promised  day,  when  a  greater  jubilee  than  was  ever  heard 
amid  the  hills  of  Palestine  shall  reverberate  over  all  the 
earth,  and  all  slavery  cease,  and  the  forfeited  inheritance, 
the  lost  world,  paradise  that  has  passed  away,  shall  be  re- 
stored again,  and  all  nations  bless  the  Redeemer,  and  be 
blessed  in  him ;  that  time  so  beautifully  spoken  of  by  the 
poet,  when  he  says  :  — 

"  One  song  employs  all  nations,  and  all  cry, 
Worthy  the  Lamb,  for  he  was  slain  for  us  ! 
The  dwellers  in  the  vales,  and  on  the  rocks, 
Shout  to  each  other,  and  the  mountain-tops 
From  distant  mountains  catch  the  flying  joy. 
Till  nation  after  nation  taught  the  strain, 
Earth  rolls  the  raptui'ous  hosanna  round. 
See  Salem  built,  the  labor  of  a  God ; 
Bright  as  the  sun  the  sacred  city  shines. 
All  kingdoms,  and  all  princes  of  the  earth. 
Flock  to  that  light ;  the  glory  of  all  lands 
Flows  into  her  ;  unbounded  is  her  joy ; 
Praise  is  in  all  her  gates  ;  upon  her  walls, 
And  in  her  streets,  and  in  her  spacious  courts. 
Is  heard  salvation.     Eastern  Java  there 
Kneels,  with  the  nations  of  the  farthest  west ; 
And  Ethiopia  spreads  abroad  her  hands. 
And  worships.    From  every  clime  they  come. 
To  see  thy  beauty,  and  to  share  thy  joy, 
0  Zion  !  an  assembly  such  as  earth 
Saw  never  —  such  as  heaven  stoops  down  to  see !  " 


CHAPTER    XXVI. 

IDOLS     FORBIDDEN  —  OBELISKS — PRIESTLY     LITERATURE — BIBLE 

FOR  ALL CHRISTIANITY    IS    CATHOLIC TEMPORAL   BLESSINGS 

—  NATIONAL  GREATNESS  —  SECRET  OP  —  THE  JEW  —  THE    BLESS- 
ING AND  THE  CURSE — THEIR  RESTORATION. 

I  STATED  in  the  commencement  of  my  explanatory  re- 
marks upon  the  book  on  which  our  remarks  are  drawing  to 
its  close,  that  the  whole  of  it  occupied  only  a  few  days  in 
its  delivery,  and  that  all  these  statutes  were  given,  if  not 
upon  Mount  Sinai  —  that  is,  upon  its  loftiest  height  or  crag 
—  yet  in  its  immediate  neighborhood,  and  around  it.  Hence, 
the  chapter  closes  with  the  statement,  that  "  these  are  the  stat- 
utes, and  judgments,  and  laws,  which  the  Lord  made  be- 
tween him  and  the  children  of  Israel  in  Mount  Sinai,  by  the 
hand  of  Moses."  I  can  conceive  nothing  more  eloquent  and 
expressive,  and  at  the  same  time,  in  some  respects,  touching, 
than  the  solemn  statements  that  are  contained  in  this  chap- 
ter. First  of  all  he  inhibits  the  making  of  idols  or  repre- 
sentations of  Deity,  by  which  to  pretend  to  worship  him. 
No  idol  or  graven  image  was  to  exist  in  Israel,  even  for  the 
sake  of  ornament  or  beauty,  lest  the  people's  tendency,  ever 
in  that  direction,  should  Avorship  the  thing  made,  in  the  room 
of  Him  who  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  But  there  is 
one  allusion  here  which  indicates  plainly  the  tendency  of 
Israel  to  carry  with  them  the  habits  they  had  imbibed  in 
Egypt.  Recollect,  they  had  just  come  forth  from  the  bond- 
age of  Egypt,  very  much  imbued  with  its  bad  habits,  need- 

(172) 


LEVITICUS   XXVI.  173 

ing  line  upon  line  to  regulate  and  correct  their  conduct. 
And  many  of  the  customs  of  Egypt  they  took  with  them ; 
and  against  these  the  laws  in  this  book  are  specially  and 
clearly  levelled.  One  law  here  given  is,  "  Neither  shall  ye 
set  up  any  image  of  stone  in  your  land."  Almost  every 
commentator  or  critic  I  have  consulted  upon  this  text,  be- 
lieves that  this  is  an  allusion  to  the  obelisks  or  pyramids,  or 
rather  obelisks,  that  are  still  to  be  found  amid  the  debris  of 
Egypt's  ancient  glory,  and  some  specimens  of  which  are  in 
almost  every  museum  in  Europe.  On  these  obelisks  were 
hieroglyphic  inscriptions ;  and,  if  this  be  an  allusion  to  them, 
it  is  meant  to  teach  Israel,  not  only  that  they  were  not  to 
worship  images,  but,  still  more,  that  they  were  not  to  have  a 
literature  peculiar  to  one  class  of  mankind  that  was  not  also 
to  be  known  by  all  the  rest.  Recollect,  in  Egypt  they  had 
an  isoteric  and  an  esoteric  literature ;  an  isoteric  literature 
known  only  to  the  priests,  expressed  by  hieroglyphic  charac- 
ters, and  kept  from  the  people,  because,  as  they  thought,  not 
fit  for  the  multitude  to  know.  I  need  not  tell  you  that,  by 
the  discovery  of  the  stone  at  Rosetta,  and  the  hieroglyphic 
characters  and  the  Greek  inscription  belonging  to  it;  by 
Young,  and  Champollion,  and  others,  the  key  to  the  hiero- 
glyphic characters  of  the  Nile  has  been  discovered ;  and  we 
now  read  that  character  and  understand  it  nearly  as  truly  as 
if  it  had  been  written  in  Hebrew,  or  Greek,  or  Latin,  or  any 
modern  or  well-known  tongue.  But  if  this  prohibition  be  an 
allusion  to  this,  I  know  nothing  more  interesting  than  the 
denunciation  of- having  a  literature  for  one  class  that  was 
not  to  be  for  the  other,  or  having  a  religious  knowledge  for 
the  highest  class  that  was  not  to  be  known  to  the  lowest ; 
and  if  so,  it  therefore  indirectly  teaches  us  that  there  is  not 
a  blessing  which  we  have  in  the  knowledge  of  God  and  of 
divine  things,  that  we  are  not  bound  to  disseminate  and 
spread,  till  the  lowest  and  the  humblest  of  mankind  know  it 
also.     Our  religion  is  not  a  religion  for  a  class,  it  is  not  a 

15* 


174  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

religion  for  a  coterie^  it  is  not  a  religion  for  a  sect ;  it  is  a  re- 
ligion essentially  catholic,  meant  to  beautify  and  bless  the 
lowest  masses,  as  well  as  the  loftiest  heights  of  society.  "Wo 
are  here  taught  that  our  religion,  and  our  faith,  and  our  Bi- 
ble, are  to  be  spread  wherever  we  have  the  means  and  the 
opportunities  of  spreading  them;  and  that  to  try  to  lock 
them  up  in  a  dead  tongue,  or  to  say  that  there  is  any  thing 
that  the  priest  or  the  minister  may  know  that  the  people 
ought  not  to  know,,  is  a  practice  prohibited  and  forbidden  in 
this  blessed  book. 

He  then  tells  them  that  "  ye  shall  keep  my  Sabbaths  and 
reverence  my  sanctuary  ;  "  and  upon  this  ground,  I,  the  pro- 
claimer  of  it,  the  Object  worshipped  in  the  midst  of  it,  am 
the  Lord. 

He  then  tells  them  that  if  they  will  walk  in  his  statutes, 
and  keep  his  commandments,  and  do  them,  then  there  is  not 
a  temporal  blessing  in  the  catalogue  of  the  highest  and  the 
most  providential  mercies  that  he  will  not  bestow  upon  them. 
It  is  true  that  this  is  not  so  now  literally,  and  yet  it  is  so  sub- 
stantially. The  whole  of  this  institution  was  what  is  now 
called  a  theocracy.  God  was  not  only  the  God  of  the  Jew, 
but  he  was  also  his  King ;  and  obedience  to  him,  as  God, 
brought  down  spiritual  blessings ;  loyalty  to  him,  as  King, 
brought  down  temporal  and  national  blessings.  The  the- 
ocracy has  now  ceased ;  but  it  is  still  true  in  the  ninetee»th 
century  as  it  was  in  the  days  of  Moses,  "  Seek  first  the  king- 
dom of  God  and  his  righteousness,  and  all  other  things  will 
be  added  unto  you."  Now  that  is  an  absolute  promise  of 
universal  application,  and  we  ourselves  shall  feel  it  true  in 
our  actual  experience  if  we  will  only  put  it  to  the  test. 
Some  do  not  seek  the  kingdom  of  God  at  all,  but  seek  earthly 
things  ;  often  they  miss  the  things  that  they  seek,  and,  of 
course,  miss  what  they  never  sought — God's  favor;  some- 
times they  are  suffered  in  worse  judgment  to  get  the  things 
that  they  seek,  and  thev  find  them  thorns  and  briers,  and  a 


LEVITICUS   XXVI.  175 

curse,  and  no  blessing.  But  if  wc  seek  first  the  kingdom  of 
God,  we  shall  not  only  get  that,  but  the  other  tilings,  tempo- 
ral prosperity  and  temporal  blessings,  shall  be  added  unto 
us  if  they  be  most  expedient  for  us. 

We  see  here,  in  the  next  place,  that  temporal  blessings 
are  connected  with  obedience  and  allegiance  to  God.  These 
temporal  blessings  —  peace's  victory  over  all  their  enemies, 
the  fruitfulness  of  the  land,  the  enjoyment  of  God's  taber- 
nacle in  the  midst  of  it  —  all  are  promised  to  obedience. 
This  is  still  true  of  nations.  Nations  that  are  highest  in 
Christian  character  will  always  be  highest  in  every  other 
national  blessing.  Just  cast  your  eyes  over  the  map  of 
Europe ;  and  if  you  had  a  thermometer,  and  could  gauge 
the  amount  of  living  Christianity  in  each  nation,  you 
will  find  that  the  nation  in  which  Christianity  is  purest,  rises 
highest,  spreads  the  furthest,  descends  the  deepest,  is  the 
very  nation  that  is  highest  in  all  that  dignifies,  ennobles,  and 
blesses  a  nation.  And  so,  in  our  own  native  land,  the  vic- 
tory of  our  armies  in  the  righteous  warfare  to  which  it  is 
committed,  the  maintenance  of  our  land  in  peace  and  pros- 
perity against  all  foe  and  all  invasion,  will  rest,  not  only 
upon  the  banners  of  our  brave  troops,  not  only  upon  the 
gallantry  of  our  heroic  sailors,  but  far  more  upon  the  liv- 
ing religion  that  saturates  the  masses  of  our  country.  It 
is  righteousness  that  exalteth  a  nation,  and  sin  is  the 
ruin  of  a  nation.  If  you  will  read  the  history  of  nations, 
you  will  find  this  universally  true ;  no  nation  ever  falls 
before  a  foreign  foe  —  it  always  commits  suicide.  Na- 
tions die  suicides;  they  are  self-slain.  Rome  fell  only 
because  of  its  inner  corruption;  the  beautiful  sisterhood 
of  Greek  states  fell  by  their  universal  depravity;  and 
our  nation  will  never  fall  before  a  foreign  foe  as  long 
as  it  is  —  what  it  is  now  in  a  greater  degree  than  any 
other  —  a  nation  that  fears  God,  and  works  righteousness, 
and  counts  the  sunshine  of  His  favor  more  precious  than 


176  SCRIPTURE   READINGS. 

gold  and  silver,  and  whatsoever  things  may  be  weighed  or 
bought.  ' 

Then  He  tells  them  that  if,  on  the  other  hand,  they  will 
not  obey  his  statutes  and  his   commandments,  that  he  will 
walk  contrary  to  them,  and  will  scatter  them  among  all  na- 
tions.    I  admit,  at  once,  that  this  applies  primarily  to  the 
Jews ;  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  blessing  and  the  curse  here 
belong  to  the  Jews ;  and,  while  speaking  of  the  blessing  as 
applicable  to  ourselves,  we  must  not  omit  to  add  that  the 
curse  is  applicable  to  us  also.     Many  Gentile  Christians  act 
in  a  very  unfair  way ;  they  read  the   Old  Testament,  and 
pick  out  all  its  bright  promises  and  blessings,  and  they  say, 
"  These  are  for  us ;  "  then  they  read  it  again  and  pick  out 
all  its  curses,  and  they  fling  these  contemptuously  and  un- 
mercifully to  the  Jews.     Now  that  is  not  fair.     If  the  Jew 
has  the  curse  on  him  now,  he  has  the  blessing  for  him  in 
bright  reversion.     The  curse  has  fallen  upon  him ;  his  land 
is  now  the  practical  and  visible  transcript  of  those  very 
curses   that   are   here   pronounced ;    read   Chateaubriand's 
account  of  his  visit  to  it ;  read  any  recent  traveller ;  read 
Keith's  "  Fulfilment  of  Prophecy ;  "  read  Bishop  Newton ; 
read  Volney,  the  infidel,  when  he  describes  Palestine,  if  you 
want  the  most  complete  evidence  of  the  fulfilment  of  every 
curse  in  this  chapter.     I  will  not  ask  the  sceptic  to  read  Dr. 
Keith's   book,  because   he   is  a  Christian,   and  scepticism 
quarrels  with  this ;  but  to  read  Volney's  description  of  what 
he  saw  in  Palestine,  and  he  was  an  infidel ;  and  you  will 
find  it  literally  true  that  Volney,  the  infidel,  unconsciously 
writes,  "Thy  word,  O   God,  is  truth."     Every  curse  has 
been  visited  upon  that  land,  and  the  Jew  is  the  visible  man- 
ifestation at  this  moment  of  the  awful  judgments  that  have 
been  pronounced  upon  him.     Look  at  the  Jews  in  any  land 
at  this  moment.     How  do  you  account  for  the  Jews  ?     The 
Greek  is  gone ;  the  Albanian  robber  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury is  no  more  like  the  Greek  of  the  days  of  Pericles,  than 


LEVITICUS    XXVI.  177 

we  are.  The  Roman  is  gone;  the  modern  Italian  is  not  the 
ancient  Roman.  There  is  no  one  nation  that  retains  its 
nationality  complete,  entire,  but  the  Jew.  And  you  must  be 
aware,  even  in  our  land,  of  the  truth  of  this ;  a  nation  with- 
out a  country,  a  people  without  a  home ;  and  bearing  on  his 
face  the  unmistakable  evidence  of  his  origin ;  and,  also  in 
his  restlessness,  the  evidence  that  the  curse  pronounced  still 
cleaves  to  him  wherever  he  goes.  You  find  the  Jew  by  the 
Mississippi,  the  Missouri,  the  Ganges,  the  Thames,  every- 
where ;  in  all  latitudes,  speaking  all  tongues,  with  an  ances- 
try in  comparison  of  which  the  ancestry  of  our  greatest 
nobles  is  but  of  yesterday,  and  with  hopes  that  have  a  bril- 
liancy equalled  only  by  our  own.  How  any  man  can  be  a 
disbeliever  in  the  Bible  Avith  that  deep-toned  voice  ringing 
in  his  ear  every  morning,  I  cannot  well  conceive ;  or  how 
anybody  can  read  the  Bible  that  predicts  the  destiny  of  the 
Jews,  and  yet  refuse  to  believe  it  to  be  inspired,  I  cannot 
conceive.  Yet  the  Jew  is  not  forsaken ;  he  is  cast  down, 
but  he  is  not  cast  off;  and  it  will  not  do  for  men  in  the  pres- 
ent day  to  say,  "God  has  cursed  them,  and  therefore  I 
curse  them : "  that  is  not  right ;  on  the  contrary,  there  is  a 
blessing  in  this  book  upon  those  that  bless  Israel,  and  there 
is  a  curse  upon  those  that  curse  him.  "We  are  not  to  set  out 
to  fulfd  prophecy  ;  God  will  look  after  the  fulfilment  of  his 
prophecies ;  we  are  to  obey  precepts  by  doing  justly,  loving 
mercy,  and  walking  humbly  with  our  God.  And,  there- 
fore, lest  you  should  suppose  that  God  has  forsaken  the 
Jews,  he  says,  at  the  close  of  this  very  chapter,  "  Yet  for  all 
that,  when  they  be  in  the  land  of  their  enemies,  I  will  not 
cast  them  away,  neither  will  I  abhor  them,  to  destroy  them 
utterly,  and  to  break  my  covenant  with  them ;  for  I  am  the 
Lord  their  God.  But  I  will  for  their  sakes  remember  the 
covenant  of  their  ancestors  whom  I  brought  forth  out  of  the 
land  of  Egypt."  I  am  one  of  those  who  may  be  mistaken, 
who  believe  that  they  are  on  the  very  verge  of  their  restora- 


178  SCRIPTUKE    READINGS. 

tion  to  their  own  great  land ;  a  land  still  kept  for  tliem  ;  and 
that  the  great  tumult  which  is  now  agitating  and  darkening 
the  East,  is  the  preparation  of  a  way  for  an  exodus  to  Pal- 
estine, brighter  and  more  glorious  than  that  recorded  in  the 
Book  of  Exodus. 


CHAPTER    XXVII. 

MINUTE  LAWS  —  DEVOTED  THINGS  —  EXCHANGES  —  DEVOTED  PER- 
SONS—  JEPHTIIAh's  daughter  —  THE  CONSIDERATION  OF  THE 
rOOR — THE    TITHE-SHEEP. 

We  now  arrive  at  the  last  chapter  of  a  book,  much  of 
which  has  been  fraught  with  moral,  evangelical,  and  practi- 
cal instruction.  You  can  easily  see  that  in  this  chapter 
Moses  acts  under  the  inspiration  and  the  guidance  of  God, 
as  the  great  lawmaker  and  lawgiver  of  Israel.  The  chap- 
ter is  strictly  and  properly  a  summary  of  many  of  the  laws, 
stating  most  minutely  the  coins,  their  values,  and  the  esti- 
mation in  which  every  thing  was  held,  and  for  which  a  vow 
might  be  exchanged.  You  cannot  complain  that  these  laws 
are  excessively  minute  ;  for  we  all  know  that  nothing  can 
be  more  intricate  —  too  intricate  and  minute  —  than  the 
statute-book  of  our  country,  or  the  laws  of  the  land,  making 
them  sometimes  to  appear  perplexing ;  but  all  necessary  for 
giving  effect,  precision,  and  distinction,  to  the  various  laws 
laid  down  for  the  regulation  of  mankind.  Well,  this  chap- 
ter is  full  of  minute  regulations  which  were  necessary  in  a 
day  when  an  unenlightened  race  were  the  subjects  of  their 
action,  and  Avhich  are  still  necessary  in  our  laAvs  when  more 
enlightened  people  are  subjected  to  their  influence.  We 
know  so  well  how  the  conscience  can  persuade  the  heart, 
and  how  the  heart  can  make  a  mere  servant  of  the  intel- 
lect ;  and  construe  things  very  plain,  not  in  the  direction  of 
equity  and  truth,  but  in  the  direction  of  the  favorite  passion, 
the  predominating  preference,  or  the  special  personal  inter- 

(179) 


180  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

est  that  we  have  m  view.  It  was,  therefore,  essential  that 
these  laws,  which  were  to  govern  a  people  in  the  desert, 
should  be  so  clearly,  and  distinctly,  and  minutely  defined, 
that  it  could  scarcely  be  possible  for  them  to  misconstrue 
them  or  to  misinterpret  them. 

Now  the  first  series  of  laws  here  laid  down  relates  to 
Avhat  we  have  read  —  that  persons  might  devote,  or  vow,  or 
dedicate  their  sheep,  or  their  oxen,  or  the  product  of  their 
fields,  or  the  fruits  of  their  industry,  to  the  Lord ;  that  is, 
might  give  it  for  the  maintenance  of  his  temple,  for  the 
maintenance  of  his  altars,  or  in  any  shape  for  religious  pur- 
poses in  the  land  of  Canaan,  and  in  the  days  of  the  sojourn 
in  the  desert.  If  a  person  having  made  a  vow  of  an  ox,  or 
a  shee^:),  or  of  the  fruit  of  the  field,  or  of  any  other  thing 
which  was  capable  of  being  vowed  and  dedicated  to  God, 
might  wish  to  retain  it,  a  law  or  provision  is  here  made, 
that,  instead  of  executing  his  vow  by  giving  it  in  kind,  he 
might  give  it  in  money ;  the  shekel  of  the  sanctuary  being 
like  the  pound  note,  the  standard  figure  in  the  ecclesiastical 
exchequer  of  Israel.  We  have,  therefore,  in  this  a  pro- 
vision for  those  who  might  wish  not  to  give  the  precise 
thing  that  they  had  vowed ;  and  they  would  naturally  say. 
How  much  shall  I  give  instead  ?  They  were  not  to  be  the 
judge ;  but  the  priest  was  the  judge,  and  he  could  say.  For 
so  much  you  can  recall  your  vow ;  and  the  judge  himself 
was  to  decide,  not  according  to  his  own  personal  conviction, 
but  according  to  the  express  law  in  the  statute-book,  of 
which  he  vras  the  impartial  and  authorized  interpreter,  and 
according  to  which  it  was  his  bounden  duty  to  act  in  decid- 
ing a  question.  Thus,  then,  the  first  ten  verses  are  all  a 
series  of  enactments  providing  for  the  revocation  of  a  vow, 
and  showing  that  by  paying  so  much  the  vow  was  thereby 
substantially,  if  not  verbatim  and  literally,  fulfilled. 

We  read  in  the  next  place,  that  persons  were  not  at  lib- 
erty to  vow  the  first-fruits  of  the  field,  or  the  firstlings  of 


LEVITICUS    XXVII.  181 

their  flocks,  for  the  plain  reason  that  these  were  vowed  al- 
ready :  God  claimed  them  as  his  right,  and  these,  therefore, 
they  might  not  vow  at  all.  Then,  again,  a  person  devoted  a 
man  —  a  father,  a  son,  for  instance,  or  a  mother,  a  daughter 
—  to  the  Lord ;  and  in  such  a  case  it  is  said  that  one  so  de- 
voted should  be  most  holy.  "  None  devoted,  which  shall  be 
devoted  of  men,  shall  be  redeemed:  but  shall  surely  be  put 
to  death."  Now  this  expression,  "  shall  surely  be  put  to 
death,"  is  not  strictly  the  rendering  of  the  original,  nor  do  I 
think  there  is  the  least  foundation  for  the  stress  that  has 
been  laid  upon  it.  It  is  literally  rendered  from  the  Hebrew, 
"  shall  dying  die  ; "  and  the  meaning  is,  that  a  person  de- 
voted in  the  way  specified  here,  shall  not  be  capable  of  having 
a  compensation  substituted  for  him  or  her,  but  shall  remain 
a  devoted  person  unto  the  day  of  his  or  her  death.  It  is  not, 
"  shall  be  put  to  death  ;  "  and  this  shows  that  the  interpre- 
tation sometimes  put  upon  the  sacrifice  of  Jephthah's  daugh- 
ter, based  in  some  degree  upon  this,  is  an  unjust  one.  I  do 
not  believe  that  Jephthah's  daughter  was  put  to  death  ;  she 
was  not  killed,  she  was  simply  devoted  till  the  day  of  her 
death,  which  occurred  in  the  ordinary  course  of  nature. 
That  she  was  not  killed  is  to  me  obvious  from  this :  that, 
first,  no  sacrifice  could  be  killed  by  any  but  a  priest ;  —  but 
Jephthah  himself  was  a  warrior,  and  not  a  priest,  and  he 
could  not  sacrifice  a  lamb,  still  less  a  human  being  ;  —  and, 
in  the  second  place,  it  was  strictly  forbidden  in  the  law  of 
Leviticus  to  sacrifice  a  human  being.  Human  sacrifices 
were  abhorrent  to  the  law  of  God  ;  and  therefore  God  never 
could  have  justified  Jephthah  in  oflfering  that  as  a  sacrifice 
which  he  had  strictly  forbidden  in  every  part  of  his  laAv. 
And  thus  the  passage  here,  "  shall  surely  be  put  to  death," 
when  it  is  really  looked  at  as  it  means,  does  not  indicate  that 
the  devoted  woman  or  the  devoted  man  shall  be  put  to  death, 
but  shall  remain  devoted  until  the  hour  of  death.  But 
you  say  what  is  the  distinction  between  the  former  part  of 

16 


182  SCRIPTURE    READINGS. 

the  chapter,  where  we  read  of  vows  of  creatures  to  God,  and 
this  latter  part  where  it  is  another  class  devoted  to  the  Lord  ? 
The  vow  was  an  ordinary  expression,  which  might  be  very 
rashly  uttered ;  but  the  devotion  of  an  object  was  a  solemn 
and  a  sacred  calling  down  the  judgment  of  God  upon  the 
individual  if  he  did  not  fulfil  it.  It  was  a  vow  with  a  sort 
of  oath  superadded  to  it ;  and  hence  the  original  word  for 
"  devoted  "  in  the  twenty-eighth  verse,  is  cherem,  in  Greek 
anathema.  And  it  is  very  singular,  that  the  institution  wdiicli 
exists  in  Turkey,  the  harem,  is  a  word  borrowed  from  the 
Hebrew,  through  the  Arabic,  and  it  means  strictly,  certain 
persons  that  may  be  devoted  —  to  good,  or  to  bad,  or  to  neu- 
tral, or  to  neither  good  nor  bad  purposes  at  all.  The  word 
here  for  "  devoted  "  is  literally  any  one  dedicated  or  devoted, 
for  that  is  the  simple  meaning  of  the  word.  And  I  ex- 
plained to  you  before,  that  the  Hebrew  word  kadosh,  for 
"  holy,"  —  the  same  as  the  Latin  Avord  sacer,  and  the  Greek 
word  dyiog,  —  does  not  mean  necessarily  holy,  though  we  so 
translate  it,  but  it  simply  means  a  person  dedicated  to  a  good 
or  a  bad  use.  Now  this  person  thus  devoted  in  this  way,  in 
this  solemn  manner,  shall  be  incapable  of  being  redeemed, 
but  shall  continue  a  devoted  being  until  the  day  of  death. 

Then  the  thirty-second  verse  is  explained  by  reference  to 
a  simple  custom  among  the  Jews  concerning  the  tithe  of  the 
herd  or  of  the  flock.  And  how  very  merciful,  I  may  notice, 
does  God  show  himself  now,  as  in  a  previous  part  of  the 
chapter —  I  ought  to  have  alluded  to  it  before  ;  "  If  a  man 
be  poorer  than  thy  estimation,  then  he  shall  present  himself 
before  the  priest,  and  the  priest  shall  value  him ;  according 
to  his  ability  that  vowed  the  priest  shall  value  him."  It  is 
most  beautiful  to  see  in  all  the  ancient  statutes  of  Israel,  how 
the  poor  are  emphatically  cared  for.  It  is  not  the  rich  and 
the  great  that  are  most  cared  for,  but  the  poor,  the  humble, 
and  the  lowly.  The  provision  here  made  is  a  very  wise  one ; 
the  tenth  of  the  flock  shall  be  holy  unto  the  Lord.     And  the 


LEVITICUS  xxvir.  183 

way  to  know  tlie  tenth  of  the  floek,  is  not  for  the  tithe  col- 
lector to  rush  into  the  fold  and  pick  out  the  best  sheep  or 
the  choicest  of  the  flock  ;  but  all  the  flock  are  to  be  placed 
within  a  pen ;  a  narrow  gate  is  to  be  opened,  the  sheep  are 
to  go  out  from  this  ;  when  one  goes  out  you  know  the  rest 
easily  follow ;  and  then  a  person  stands  by  —  this  was  the 
Hebrew  custom  —  with  a  rod,  and  on  the  end  of  the  rod  red 
ochre,  or  some  other  coloring  substance ;  and  whenever  a 
tenth  sheep  came,  he  struck  it  on  the  back  with  this  rod,  and 
that  left  a  mark  upon  it ;  and  then  the  merciful  provision  is, 
that  the  sheep  so  marked  shall  be  the  tithe  of  the  flock, 
whether  it  be  good  or  bad :  the  beautiful  impartiality,  as  well 
as  the  tenderness  and  mercy  of  God  running  through  the 
whole  of  this  book,  and  showing  that  the  world  is  not  so 
much  in  advance  of  Leviticus  as  the  world  in  its  vanity 
sometimes  thinks ;  but  that  many  an  addition  to  our  statute- 
book  might  be  taken  from  what  the  sceptic  would  call,  these 
obsolete  and  antiquated  laws. 


INDEX. 


Aaron,  prefigured  Christ,  66;  of- 
fers a  calf,  67 ;  death  of  his  sons, 
70. 

consecration  of,  57 ;  by  IVIo- 

ses,  58;  in  the  presence  of  the 
congregation,  60;  hasted  seven 
days,  63. 

Abel's  offering  acceptable,  17. 

Absolution,  corrupted  form  of,  91; 
diflerence  between  the  EugUsh 
and  the  Romish,  92. 

Adjuration,  law  and  illustration  of, 
37. 

Altar,  fire  of  the,  46. 

Animals,  on  the  distinction  between 
"  clean  "  and  "  unclean,"  78;  Dr. 
Kitto  on,  83. 

Atonement,  Dr.  Bush  on  tlie  word, 
12;  taught  in  the  Levitical  ap- 
pointments, 21-44;  necessary  for 
every  sin,  41 ;  must  be  personally 
apprehended,  49. 

,  day  of.  111. 

Bible,  The,  the  source  of  heathen 
traditions,  47. 

Blasphemy,  nature  and  law  of,  160. 

Blood  forbidden  to  be  eaten,  27. 

Bread,  the  memorial,  160 ;  its  mean- 
ing, ib. 

Burnt-oftering,  nature  of,  9. 

Bush,  Dr.,  observations  on  Leviti- 
cus, 1 ;  on  ch.  i.  3 ;  on  the  use  of 
saU,  20;  on  ch.  iii.  9,  28;  on  the 
sin-offering,  34;  on  the  sin  of  Na- 
dab  and  Abihu,  75 ;  on  the  lepro- 
sy, 107;  on  the  scape-goats,  117; 
on  marriage,  121 ;  on  the  Sabbati- 
cal year,  165;  description  of  the 
jubilee,  107. 

Cain's  worship  compared  with 
Abel's,  17. 

1 


Church,  The,  has  advanced  in  Avis- 
dom,  158. 

of  Rome,  its  treatment  of 

the  consecrated  bread,  54;  its  re- 
tention of  Levitical  ceremonies, 
61;  its  doctrine  of  absolution,  90; 
its  ordination  service,  142. 

Consecration  of  the  priests,   offer- 
ings at,  48;  of  Aaron,  57. 

Convocation  of  the  clergy,  remarks 
on  the,  59. 

Corruption  of  human  nature,  proofs 
of,  97 ;  acknowledgments  of,  98. 

Daily  offering,  law  of  the,  46 ;  pre- 
figured Christ,  47. 

Daniel  on  the  "  sacrifice  "  and  "  ob- 
lation," 17. 

Death,  punishment  of,  for  miirder, 
etc.,  162. 

Devoted,  law   of  things,  180;    dis- 
tinctions respecting  things,  182. 

Disease  and  sin,  93. 

,  cure  of,  associated    with 

sacrifice,  94. 

Egyptian  literature,  remarks  on,  173. 

Eucharistic  or  thank-oft'erings,   14, 
52. 

Faber  on  the  scape-goat,  118. 

Feasts,  Jewish,  purposes  of   their 
institution,  152. 

First-fruirs  to  be  offered,  22,  154. 

Food  of   the  Jews,  restrictions   on 
the,  82 ;  Dr.  Kitto  on,  83. 

Gleanings,  law  respecting,  155. 

Goats,  the  scape,  opinions  respect- 
ing, 117. 

Hebrew  idiom,  remarks  on,  89. 

language,     the     primitive 

tongue,  74. 

Hebrews,  Epistle  to  the,   explains 
Leviticus,  34,  58. 
6*  (185) 


186 


INDEX. 


Holiness,  definition  of,  128,  etc.;  es- 
sential to  the  Christian  character, 
129;  highly  important  to  the 
Christian  minister,  137. 

Idols,  or  images,  prohibited,  172. 

Ignorance  no  excuse  for  sin,  31,  38. 

Jacob's  vow,  56. 

Jephthah's  daughter,  the  case  of, 
181. 

Jesus  healed  the  leprosy,  88,  101; 
the  only  perfect  Priest,  150. 

Jewish  festivals,  rules  for,  151 ;  use 
of,  152. 

Jews,  probably  ignorant  of  typical 
significance  of  sacrifice,  3;  care- 
fully presei'ved  the  Scriptures,  7 ; 
kept  from  idolatry  by  minute  pre- 
scriptions, 15-23;  insulated  by 
God  from  other  nations,  82 ;  holy 
to  the  Lord,  125;  suttering  for 
their  disobedience,  176;  a  blessing 
reserved  for,  177. 

John  XX.  23,  remarks  on  our  trans- 
lation, 90. 

Jubilee,  law  of  the,  165 ;  object  and 
benefit  of,  167;  Bush's  descrip- 
tion of,  ib. ;  its  lesson  to  us,  169 ; 
a  type  of  Christ's  mission,  ib. 

Laity,  utility  of,  in  the  church,  59. 

Laws,  summary  of  minute,  179. 

Leprosy,  the,  a  typical  disease,  87, 
93 ;  referred  to  the  priest,  88, 100 ; 
formula  used  by  the  priest,  89; 
dreadful  efiects  of,  94;  caused 
the  insulation  of  its  subject,  98; 
similitude  with  sin,  ib. ;  no  human 
power  can  cure,  99 ;  is  contagious, 
?6. ;  associated  Avith  guilt,  ib.; 
ceremonies  on  recovery  from, 
103;  in  a  house,  106;  remarks  of 
Dr.  Bush,  107. 

Leviticus,  Book  of,  observations  on 
by  Dr.  Bush,  1 ;  the  Gospel  con- 
tained in,  6,  8;  origin  of  the 
name,  ib.-^  time  occupied,  7;  in- 
spii*ation  of,  ib. ;  parallelism  with 
the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  34. 

Lex  talionis  reconciled  with'Chi-is- 
tian  precepts,  162. 

Marriage,  laws  of,  121. 

!Mcat-ofl"ering,  explanation  of,  16. 

Ministers  must  show  a  good  exam- 
ple, 137;  be  sent  by  the  Holy 
Ghost,  140;  are  God's  ambassa- 
dors, 141  ;  are  stewards,  142  ; 
must  be  apt  to  teach,  143 ;  prayer- 
ful, 144;  must  not  be  lords  over 
God's  heritage,  ib. ;  not  greedy  of 


filthy  lucre,  t&. ;  not  contentious 
nor  men-])leasers,  146 ;  not  given 
to  nuicli  wine,  147. 

Ministers,  duties  of  the  yjeople  to, 
148. 

Moral  significance  of  leaven,  etc., 
19 ;  salt,  20. 

Moses  consecrates  Aaron,  58. 

Nadab  and  Abihu,  destruction  of, 
70 ;  remarks  of  Dr.  Bush  on  their 
sin,  75. 

Oaths,  remarks  on  the  lawfulness 
of  judicial,  163. 

Observances,  why  so  minutely  pre- 
scribed, 15. 

Oficrings,  variety  of,  18,  41  ;  for 
sins  of  ignorance,  32  ;  of  the 
poor,  39. 

,  voluntary,  55. 

Oil,  for  the  candlestick,  158;  its 
symbolical  use,  159. 

Ordination  of  ministers  in  the  Rom- 
ish church,  142. 

Passover  described,  153. 

Peace-oflerings,  occasions  of  mak- 
ing, 24 ;  mode  of  making,  25,  26. 

Penalties,  civil,  for  offences  against 
God,  161. 

Pentecost,  feast  of,  154. 

Poor,  ofierings  provided  for  the,  39 ; 
gleaninp  left  to  the,  155 ;  duty  of 
caiing  lor  the,  ib. 

Prayer  must  accompany  means, 
106. 

Priest,  High,  not  to  uncover  his 
head,  etc.,  74;  duties  of,  on  day 
of  atonement,  111,  etc.  ;  went 
within  the  vail  alone,  116. 

Priests,  provisions  for  the,  19;  offer- 
ings for  the,  46;  ministered  bare- 
foot, 62 ;  officiating,  must  be  with- 
out blemish,  135;  mles  for  their 
ministry,  150. 

Promises 'to  obedience,  174. 

Eighteousness  a  source  of  prosperi- 
ty, 175. 

Sabbatical  vear,  remarks  of  Bush 

^  on,  165. 

Sacrifices  prescribed  in  Leviticus  ii., 
9;  typical,  2;  rule  of  interpreta- 
tion^ 4 ;  simplicity  of  the  Leviti- 
cal,  9;  mode  of  oftering,  10;  ob- 
jections to,  on  the  ground  of  taste, 
29,  65;  the  Divine  intention  in 
appointing,  30,  64 ;  for  sins  of  ig- 
norance, 31 ;  accompanied  by  con- 
fession of  sin,  40 ;  to  be  eaten  the 
day  they  were  ofi'ered,  54. 


INDEX. 


187 


Salt,  remarks  of  Dr.  Bush  ou  the 

use  of,  20. 
Scripture,  all  instructive,  51 ;  spirit 

of,  must  be  copied,  61. 
Seven,  the  perfect  number,  66. 
Shechinah,  the,  appears  to  Aaron, 

67 ;  to  the  people,  69. 
Sin,  a  remedy  for  every,  41;   the 

leprosy  of  the  soul  and  every  fac- 
ulty, 95,  etc. 

,'forgiveness  of,  by  the  priest,  90. 

Sin-otTering,    proportioned    to    the 

rank  of  the  ofTender,  33 ;  Bush  on 

the,  34 ;  identified  with  the  sin  of 

the  offerer,  68. 
Sins  of  ignorance,  31  ;    against   a 

neighboi',  43. 
Skin  of  the  oUering  to  be  the  priest's, 

52.    • 


Strong  drink  prohibited,  71,  73;  tho 
Hebrew  word  for,  74. 

Tabernacles,  feast  of,  157. 

Teetotal  principle,  remark  on,  147. 

Tithing  the  herd  or  flock,  provision 
for,  182. 

Trespass-offering,  law  of  the,  37. 

Trumpets,  feast  of,  156. 

Types,  parables,  or  allegories,  a  fa- 
vorite mode  of  teaching,  8. 

Virgin  Mary,  her  poverty,  86. 

Water,  washing  with,  antiquity  and 
universality  of,  60. 

Wines,  nature  of  eastern,  148. 

Worship  of  the  tabernacie  an  inter- 
esting studv,  15. 

of  God  must  be  spiritual, 


75. 


COMPANION 


SABBATH  MORNING  READINGS. 


THE  GREAT  SACRIFICE. 

(1S9) 


PREFACE 


This  is  not  so  much  another  and  independent 
work,  as  the  complement  of  one  actually  in  pro- 
gress. The  Sermons  it  contains  were  preached  in 
connection  with  the  Expositions  on  Leviticus,  and 
are  likely  to  cast  a  little  additional  light  on  a  very 
difficult,  but  precious  part  of  the  Sacred  Volume. 

(191) 


THE  GREAT  SACRIFICE. 


CHAPTER    I. 


THE    CONTRAST. 

"  For  if  tlie  blood  of  biills  and  of  goats,  and  the  ashes  of  an  heifer  sprink- 
ling the  unclean,  sanctifieth  to  the  purifying  of  the  flesh:  how  much 
more  shall  the  blood  of  Christ,  Avho  through  the  eternal  Spirit  oflered 
himself  without  spot  to  God,  purge  your  conscience  from  dead  works 
to  serve  the  living  God?  "  —  Hebkews  ix.  13,  14. 

We  have  seen  in  the  first  chapter  of  Leviticus,  which  we 
have  this  morning  read,  the  letter  of  the  Gospeh  In  the 
verses  that  we  have  now  read,  we  have  what  may  be  called 
the  spirit  of  the  Gospel.  The  one  is  the  outward  and  mate- 
rial hieroglyph,  the  other  is  the  inward  and  the  spiritual 
meaning.  The  one,  or  the  letter,  the  worship  on  this 
mount,  with  all  its  forms,  its  ceremonies,  its  sacrifices ;  the 
other  is  neither  on  this  mount,  nor  on  that,  but  the  require- 
ment that  they  who  are  in  Christ  worship  the  Father  in 
spirit  and  in  truth.  The  one  was  the  washing  with  water, 
the  purifying  of  the  outward  man ;  the  other  is  the  washing 
of  the  spirit,  the  renewing  of  the  inward  heart.  Leviticus, 
in  the  letter,  could  make  a  Jew  outwardly ;  the  New  Testa- 
ment can  make  a  Jew  inwardly,  whose  praise  is  not  of  man, 
but  of  God ;  but  in  both,  as  I  have  stated,  we  have  the 

17  (1'^''^) 


194  THE    CONTRAST. 

same  Gospel.  Moses  and  Matthew  equally  sketched  from  a 
grand  original ;  tliey  equally  described  the  Lord  of  glory, 
the  Sacrifice  for  sin,  the  Saviour  of  the  guilty,  only  in  differ- 
ent shades  and  colors  :  in  the  case  of  Moses  with  more 
splendid  colors,  in  more  gorgeous  hues ;  in  the  case  of 
Paul  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  more  fully,  and  sim- 
ply, and  transparently,  but  still  the  same  Saviour.  Moses 
and  Matthew  spoke  the  same  truths ;  —  the  one  with  stam- 
mering lips,  the  other  clearly :  the  one  upon  the  lower ;  the 
other  upon  the  loftier,  and  the  clearer  key-note.  They  lived 
in  the  same  light ;  but  Moses  saw  Christ  by  moonlight,  — 
a  veil  of  dark  cloud  all  round  him  and  over  him :  the  other 
saw  Christ  in  the  sunlight,  —  the  clouds  that  are  about  him 
only  softening,  not  concealing  the  splendor  of  his  glory.  But 
both  looked  to  the  same  Saviour,  —  trusted  in  the  same  cross ; 
the  one  in  the  world's  infancy,  the  other  when  light  and  im- 
mortality have  been  clearly  brought  to  light.  The  fact  is, 
there  never  has  been,  from  the  moment  that  Christ  was 
preached  in  Paradise  till  now,  but  one  Protestant  and  evan- 
gelical religion.  It  has  been  from  the  beginning.  Adam, 
Abel,  and  Enoch,  were  Christians  before  the  flood ;  Abra- 
ham, and  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  were  Christians,  amid  their  shin- 
ing tents  in  the  desert ;  Moses,  and  David,  and  Hezekiah, 
were  Christians,  amid  the  projected  shadows  of  Sinai  and  of 
Horeb  ;  Matthew,  and  Mark,  and  Luke,  and  John,  and  Peter, 
and  Paul,  were  Christians,  who  had  seen  Christ  —  the  same 
Christ  —  face  to  face  ;  Augustine,  and  Chrysostom,  and  Yig- 
ilantius,  were  Christians  in  the  patristic  era,  in  the  early 
dawn ;  and  Cecil  and  Howell,  and  innumerable  others,  fa- 
miliar to  us  personally,  or  familiar  from  their  excellence 
and  the  hfe  they  have  left  behind  them,  are  Christians  noAV, 
upon  whom  the  ends  of  the  world  have  come.  But  salva- 
tion by  grace,  through  faith  in  the  only  Sacrifice,  ever  was, 
now  is,  and  always  will  be,  the  only  mode  of  acceptance  be- 
fore God. 


THE    CONTRAST.  195 

It  may  be  a?kcd  by  some,  Why  tliis  progression  in  God's 
revealing  of  himself'?  Why  did  he  not  unfold  at  once,  in 
Eden,  the  institution  of  his  mercy  and  his  love  —  the  Gos- 
pel in  all  its  fnlness  ?  It  is  one  of  the  "  why's  "  that  a  fool 
can  ask,  and  the  wisest  man  can  scarcely  answer :  but,  while 
we  cannot  solve  it,  we  may  in  a  manner  vindicate  it  by  ask- 
ing. Why,  if  there  be  a  God  of  goodness  and  of  love,  has  he 
been  pleased  not  to  reveal  earlier  some  of  the  most  benefi- 
cent and  useful  discoveries  of  the  age  in  which  we  now  live  ? 
We  can  see  progress  in  civilization,  in  literature,  in  science, 
in  political  knowledge.  May  not  all  this  be  to  teach  us  that 
jirogress  in  God's  revealing  of  himself  is  only  part  and  par- 
cel of  the  great  plan  that  he  carries  out  in  his  own  infinite 
W'isdom,  in  his  preparation  of  mankind  for  a  better,  a  hap- 
pier, and  a  nobler  state  ?  But  we  can  see  reasons  in  it  that 
no  one  can  possibly  fail  to  admit  the  value  of:  we  can  see 
in  this  progress  a  constant  teaching  —  a  continuous  impres- 
sion. The  human  mind  is  less  impressed  by  sudden  liglit 
than  by  the  gradual  and  persistent  influence  of  a  continuous 
one.  Those  truths  that  W' e  search  out  for  ourselves  we  rec- 
ollect and  feel  more  than  those  that  are  shortly  and  simply 
told  us.  It  seems  a  law  in  our  economy,  that  any  thing 
that  we  have  been  long  drilled  and  initiated  in,  and  made 
conversant  with,  comes  to  be  part  and  parcel  of  the  influen- 
tial principles  that  direct,  and  guide,  and  shape  the  whole 
life.  Besides,  we  may  not  yet  be  able  to  answer  these  ques- 
tions, because  we  do  not  see  all  God's  ultimate  designs.  We 
see  but  a  part  of  God's  great  economy ;  and  it  is  very  pre- 
sumptuous in  us  to  pronounce  upon  the  whole,  while  we  arc 
admitted  only  to  witness  a  part.  When  you  read  the  preface 
of  a  book,  you  would  not  dream  of  pronouncing  upon  the  mer- 
its of  the  whole  from  a  perusal  of  the  preface.  When  you  see 
the  foundation  of  a  building,  you  would  not  think  of  pronounc- 
ing upon  the  excellence  or  the  beauty  of  the  edilice,  either 
from  a  brick  selected  from  the  whole,  or  from  seeing  the 


196  THE    CONTRAST. 

foundation  of  it  laid.  And  perhaps  we  may  learn,  in  after 
ages,  to  feel  some  sense  of  shame  that  we  cavilled  where  we 
ought  to  have  had  confidence;  that  we  doubted  where  we 
ought  to  have  been  humble  in  our  ignorance,  and  waited  till 
the  God  that  gave  the  mysteries  was  pleased  to  make  them 
plain. 

The  Christian  church  never,  from  Paradise  till  now,  was 
without  a  sacrifice  to  make,  or  a  sacrament  to  receive.  For 
four  thousand  years  before  Christ,  sacrifices  were  offered  up 
day  by  day,  in  order  to  carry  forward  the  hearts  of  the  offer- 
ers to  Christ,  the  only  and  the  atoning  Sacrifice.  For  two 
thousand  years  after  sacraments  have  been  celebrated  in  the 
Christian  church,  pointing  the  faith  of  the  celebrants  back- 
ward still  to  the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of 
the  world.  The  sacrifices  before  Christ  came,  preached 
Christ  to  come  ;  the  sacraments  since  Christ  came,  preach 
Christ  who  has  come :  but  the  centre  and  the  object  of  both 
was  Christ,  and  both  destitute  of  inherent  virtue,  and  pre- 
cious only  as  preaching  simply  Him  who  is  all  our  salvation 
and  all  our  desire. 

Faitii  in  Christ,  as  the  only  atonement,  was  equally  requi- 
site in  him  who  brought  his  victim  of  old,  and  in  him  w^ho 
now  does  this  in  remembrance  of  him.  It  was  not  the  sacri- 
fices that  Moses  offered  that  saved  Moses  ;  but  the  one  Great 
Sacrifice  to  come,  in  whom  Moses  believed.  It  is  not  the 
sacrament  that  we  celebrate,  that  either  regenerates  us  or 
justifies  us ;  but  the  Christ  who  appointed  those  sacraments 
in  order  to  commemorate  him.  It  was  not  the  offering  of 
his  lamb  that  saved  Moses,  but  faith  in  Christ,  the  Lamb  of 
God.  It  is  not  coming  to  the  Lord's  Supper  that  does  of  it- 
self any  good  to  us,  but  faith  in  him  who  appointed  that  in- 
stitution, rite,  and  sacrament,  in  order  to  commemorate  him. 
We  see  that  whether  it  was  under  Levi  or  under  Matthew, 
whether  it  was  in  the  economy  that  has  passed  aM^ay  or  in 
the  economy  that  still  is,  it  was  still  personal  communion 


THE    CONTRAST.  197 

with  God,  the  exercise  of  personal  faith  in  Christ  that  saved 
the  sinner,  and  not  the  sacrifice  he  offered,*or  the  sacrament 
he  celebrates,  or  the  rite,  however  beautiiul,  in  whicii  he  en- 
gages. Thus,  personal  apprehension,  or  trust — not  ecch'- 
siastical,  not  corporate,  but  personal  trust  —  with  the  heart 
and  conscience  in  Christ,  tlie  Saviour  of  sinners,  ever  was, 
now  is,  and  ever  will  be,  salvation  to  the  chiefest  of  sinners. 
Let  us  now  ask.  Who  appointed  these  sacrifices  ?  You 
must  have  noticed  to-day,  as  we  read  the  chapter,  that  they 
were  not  first  instituted  in  Leviticus,  but  regulated  there. 
God  does  not  there  appoint  the  sacrifices,  but  he  assumes 
the  offering  of  the  sacrifices  as  a  habit  that  always  had  been. 
Just  as  in  the  desert,  the  Sabbath  was  not  then  instituted ; 
their  memories  were  simply  refreshed  by  the  recapitulation 
of  it.  So  these  sacrifices  were  not  instituted  by  Moses  in 
Leviticus,  but  they  were  regulated  and  made  subservient  to 
the  great  purpose  for  which  God  designed  them.  What  is 
the  origin  of  sacrifices  —  whence  did  they  originate  ?  It  is 
not,  I  think,  possible,  that  if  man  had  been  left  to  himself,  he 
could  have  for  a  moment  supposed  that  the  sanguinary  and 
bloody  rites  in  the  Tabernacle,  making  its  courts  almost  like 
slaughter-houses,  without  any  great  lesson  that  it  inculcated, 
could  have  been  acceptable  to  God.  Man's  finest  feelings 
would  revolt  from  taking  aw^ay  the  life  of  an  innocent  and 
inoffensive  lamb,  incapable  of  injury,  and  by  its  very  nature 
unstained  by  any  sin.-  It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  he 
could  take,  of  his  own  spontaneous  choice,  such  an  animal, 
and  suppose  that  his  shedding  its  blood,  burning  it  upon  an 
altar,  and  letting  it  ascend  in  smoke  and  flame  to  God, — 
that  this  destruction  of  a  part  of  God's  most  beautiful  work- 
manship, could  by  any  possibility  atone  for  a  moral  trans- 
gression, committed  by  him  who  should  slay  the  animal  and 
offer  it  up  to  God.  It  does  seem  that  man,  as  man  is,  if  left 
to  himself,  would  have  selected  the  ftiirest  and  the  most  fra- 
grant flowers,  least  blighted  by  the  taint  of  sin,  that  grew  in 
17* 


198  THE    CONTRAST. 

the  lingering  sunshine,  and  under  the  shelter  of  the  walls  of 
Paradise,  and  liave  woven  them  into  a  beautiful  garland,  and 
laid  them  upon  the  altar  of  God,  and  have  asked  God  to  ac- 
cept these  as  the  oiferings  of  his  heart.  But  we  are  not  left 
to  guess.  Cain,  from  the  instincts  of  his  nature,  did  so,  and 
he  was  rejected :  Abel  offered  an  offering  of  a  totally  differ- 
ent description,  and  was  accepted.  We  have,  therefore, 
positive  proof  that  sacrifices  were  not  of  human  but  of  di- 
vine origin.  We  find  man,  after  his  sin,  and  before  he  was 
taught  the  gospel,  conscious  that  there  was  in  him  some 
great  want,  some  terrible  change  ;  and  dreaming  in  his  igno- 
rance that  the  fever  that  he  felt  without  was  all,  and  not  the 
sin  that  touched  the  conscience  within,  took  fig-tree  leaves, 
made  himself  a  beautiful  raiment  from  one  of  the  trees  of  the 
garden,  and  thought  that  thus  he  could  right  himself,  and 
would  be  beautiful  before  God  as  he  was  in  the  days  of  his 
pristine  innocence.  But  God  did  not  suffer  this  ;  he  clothed 
Adam  and  Eve  in  the  skins  of  slain  animals.  For  what 
purpose  were  these  animals  slain  ?  We  find  that  animal 
food  was  not  allowed  till  the  days  of  Noah  ;  for  two  thousand 
years  Hesli  was  not  eaten  as  part  of  the  food  of  man.  It  is 
therefore  certain  that  the  skins  with  which  Adam  and  Eve 
were  clothed,  were  the  skins  of  animals  slain  in  sacrifice. 
The  instant  Adam  sinned,  that  instant  the  want  of  the  Great 
Sacrifice  was  felt  in  Paradise.  Cain  offers  up  beautiful 
flowers  and  delicious  fruits,  as  expressive  of  his  allegiance 
to  God,  and  the  fruits  and  the  flowers  are  blasted,  and  the 
offerer  is  branded :  Abel  takes  of  the  firstlings  of  his  flock, 
offers  up  a  lamb,  sheds  its  blood ;  the  offering  is  accepted, 
and  the  offerer  is  praised.  We  have,  therefore,  express  di- 
vine sanction,  that  sacrifices  were  of  divine  origin.  Job 
offered  up  a  whole  burnt-offering  in  case  sin  should  cleave 
to  his  sons ;  Abraham,  wherever  he  struck  his  tent,  there 
had  his  altar  built ;  and  we  find,  in  the  Levitical  economy, 
sacrifices  expressly  authorized,  commanded,  and  approved 


THE    CONTRAST.  199 

by  God.  We  are  thus  certain  that  sacrifices  are  of  divine 
origin.  Where,  too,  did  the  most  barbarous  tribes  in  the 
backwoods  and  deserts  of  the  world  get  the  sacntices  that 
they  offer?  I  am  satisfied  it  is  the  remains  of  tradition. 
Tradition  has  wafted  on  its  wings  certain  primal  and  aborig- 
inal truths  ;  and  the  most  distant  tribes  prove,  by  their  prac- 
tice, their  origin  to  have  been  where  Ararat  stood ;  and  the 
remains  of  the  religion  that  they  practise  to  be  distorted  frag- 
ments of  the  revelation  of  God  himself. 

If  these  sacrifices  were  of  Divine  origin,  what  was  their 
object  —  why  were  they  instituted  ?  Was  it  a  mere  arbitra- 
ry selection,  or  was  there  special  fitness  in  the  sacrifices  for 
the  special  purpose  that  God  had  in  view  ?  What  was  their 
object  —  what  their  end?  We  can  answer  some  of  these 
questions  from  that  infallible  commentary  upon  Leviticus  — 
the  Epistle  of  St.  Paul  to  the  Hebrews.  No  sacrifices 
offered  by  Aaron  and  his  sons  were  ever  regarded  as  substi- 
tutes for,  or  as  superseding,  moral  duties  and  obligations. 
The  same  God  that  appointed  the  sacrifices  to  lead  to  the 
knowledge  of  forgiveness,  appointed  the  Decalogue,  and  for- 
bade its  violation.  It  is  not  true,  therefore,  that  the  atone- 
ment offered  in  the  Tabernacle  or  the  Temple  superseded 
the  moral  obligation  of  compliance  with  God's  holy  law. 
"  Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord,  and  bow  myself 
before  the  high  God  ?  Shall  I  come  before  him  with  burnt- 
offerings,  with  calves  of  a  year  old  ?  Will  the  Lord  be 
pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  or  with  ten  thousands  of 
rivers  of  oil  ?  Shall  I  give  my  first-born  for  my  transgres- 
sion, the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul  ?  "  No  ! 
"  He  hath  showed  thee,  0  man,  what  is  good ;  and  what  doth 
the  Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy, 
and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy  God?"  No  sacrifices  that 
man  could  offer  could  ever  be  a  substitution  for  that. 

These  Jewish  sacrifices  did  not  atone  of  themselves. 
There  was  no  more  expiatory  virtue  in  the  Levitical  sacri- 


200  THE    CONTRAST. 

fice  of  a  lamb  than  there  is  in  the  sacraments  that  we  cele- 
brate. There  is  no  proportion  between  them.  How  can  we 
suppose  that  the  blood  of  a  dumb  brute  can  possibly  cancel 
the  transgressions  of  a  responsible  and  immortal  soul? 
There  is  no  proportion  between  them ;  and  to  suppose  that 
any  Israelite  had  his  sins  forgiven,  really  and  fully,  through 
the  blood  of  the  sacrifice  he  offered,  is  to  misunderstand  the 
whole  of  the  Levitical  economy ;  for,  says  the  apostle  him- 
self, if  these  sacrifices  could  have  taken  away  sin,  they  would 
have  ceased  to  be  offered ;  because  the  worshipper,  once 
pardoned,  would  have  had  no  more  consciousness  of  sin. 
But  the  fact  that  they  were  constantly  offered,  shows  that 
they  could  not  take  away  sin ;  because  if  they  had  taken 
away  sin  they  would  have  ceased  to  be  offered,  as  having 
done  their  work,  and  nothing  more  being  left  for  them  to  do. 
But  the  very  fact  that  they  were  ceaselessly  and  continu- 
ously offered  proves  that  they  could  not  take  away  sin. 
Hence  David,  when  he  rose  to  the  highest  pitch  of  evangel- 
ical experience,  and  writing  after  his  sin,  in  Psalm  li.,  says, 
"  For  thou  desirest  not  sacrifice  ;  else  would  I  give  it :  thou 
delightest  not  in  burnt-offering."  Now,  if  these  had  been 
atoning,  or  expiatory,  they  would  have  been  the  very  things 
that  God  would  have  delighted  in,  that  God  would  have  de- 
sired, and  that  David  would  really  need.  But  David  looked 
beyond  these,  and  saw  Him  who  was  the  Antitype,  the  ob- 
ject, and  the  end  of  these  ;  and  he,  therefore,  prayed  that 
God  would  hide  his  face  from  his  sins,  and  blot  out  all  his 
iniquities.  I  admit  there  were  subordinate  ends  in  all  these 
sacrifices ;  but  beyond  all  these,  and  beyond  all  doubt,  the 
great  end  of  all  Leviticus  —  its  pervading  aim,  its  object,  its 
meaning  —  was,  to  teach  Christianity,  which  is  one  word  for 
Christ  crucified.  What  is  Christ  crucified?  Christianity. 
What  is  Christianity?  .Just  Christ  crucified.  The  lustre 
of  the  victims  of  Levi  was  borrowed  from  the  Cross  :  their 
significance,  their   interpretation,  is  found  in  the  Cross  of 


THE    CONTRAST.  201 

Christ.  Christ  was  not  adapted  to  them,  as  the  popular  mind 
often  supposes,  but  they  were  preadapted  to  set  forth  Christ. 
He  was  the  arclietypal  victim  —  they  were  shadows  only  to 
signify  Him.  The  proof  of  this  is  plain.  These  sacrifices 
began  in  Paradise  the  moment  that  Christ  was  declared; 
and  they  ceased  on  Calvary  the  moment  that  Christ  died. 
They  were  buried  with  Christ  in  his  grave  —  only  Christ 
rose,  and  all  the  sacrifices  of  Levi  remain  behind. 

How  conclusive  is  the  evidence  in  all  this  that  these  sac- 
rifices were  not  atonements,  nor  expiations  —  but  voices 
crying  in  the  wilderness,  "  We  are  not  that  Lamb  ;  we  are 
only  here  to  help  you  to  see  that  Lamb ;  and  to  lean,  not 
upon  us,  that  cannot  save  you  ;  but  upon  the  Lamb  of  God, 
that  takcth  away  the  sins  of  the  world."  And  justly  do  we 
conclude,  that  if  any  thing  besides  this  were  the  object  of 
the  Levitical  economy,  it  would  be  altogether  unworthy  of 
God.  If  there  be  not  meaning  and  mystery  wrapt  up  in 
these  strange  hieroglyphs,  with  their  meaning  and  mystery 
explained  in  Christ  and  in  the  New  Testament,  I  never 
could  suppose  that  the  God  that  gave  that  magnificent  and 
sublime  expression  of  his  will  on  Sinai  —  the  Decalogue  — 
ever  could  have  descended  to  tell  you  how  to  kill  sheep,  to 
shed  their  blood,  upon  what  side  of  the  altar  they  should  be 
slain,  and  what  robes  the  priest  should  wear  when  he  slew 
them.  The  contrast  between  the  two  is  so  great  that  you 
cannot  suppose  that  the  God  who  gave  the  Decalogue  in- 
spired Leviticus,  if  Leviticus  be  an  ultimate  and  a  closing 
thing.  The  fact  is,  —  regard  Leviticus  as  an  ultimate  ritual, 
its  prescriptions  as  stereotypes,  and  I  could  not  accept  it  as 
inspired :  but  rend  the  veil ;  let  the  light  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment fall  upon  the  Old ;  let  the  glory  that  shone  on  Mount 
Tabor  in  the  transfiguration  light  upon  Moses,  as  he  treads 
the  desert,  and  builds  the  Tabernacle,  and  names  the  sacri- 
fices,—  and  I  can  see  in  every  sacrifice  the  footprint  of 
Christ,  in  every  utterance  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  and  in  all 


202  THE    CONTRAST. 

Christ  crucified  —  which  is,  Christianity.  No  one,  there- 
fore, should  read  the  Old  Testament  without  the  New,  nor 
the  New  without  the  Old.  Read  commentaries  and  expla- 
nations of  both,  by  all  means  ;  but  read  Leviticus,  espec- 
ially, in  the  light  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews.  I  do  not 
know  what  we  should  have  done  without  tliat  magnificent 
commentary  uj^on  Leviticus  —  the  Epistle  to  the  Plebrews  : 
it  is  the  key  to  it,  it  explains  it,  and  puts  it  in  its  true  light, 
and  shows  its  significance  and  its  meaning  most  strikingly 
and  beautifully. 

Having  reached  these  conclusions,  let  me  notice  that  these 
Levitical  sacrifices  were  always  regarded  as  fit  for  food. 
And  I  may  mention,  that  while  there  was  mainly  and  chiefly 
great  spiritual  ends,  you  will  find  in  Leviticus  laws  for  food, 
for  clothing,  and  for  social  life,  that  we,  of  this  nineteenth 
century,  are  only  beginning  at  this  moment  to  learn.  Why, 
what  do  you  find  amongst  the  Jews  now  ?  Tliey  are  not 
certainly  the  cleanest  or  the  most  particular  people  in  their 
habits ;  and  yet,  because  they  ritually  observe  certain  laws, 
you  find  them  generally  exempt  from  pestilence ;  by  their 
law  they  are  obliged  at  certain  times  to  clean  their  house, 
and  to  clean  it  thoroughly  —  not  only  those  parts  which  are 
seen,  but  every  nook  and  corner  of  it.  And  what  is  the  con- 
sequence ?  That  the  Jews,  by  the  use  of  those  means  that 
God  in  his  providence  has  provided,  are  generally  exempt 
from  those  fevers,  and  pestilences,  and  other  diseases,  to 
which  Gentiles  are  more  subject.  And  there  are  in  the  Old 
Testament,  in  addition  to  its  great  moral  laws,  certain  regu- 
lations for  social  life  and  instructions  with  reference  to  it, 
that  make  this  nineteenth  century  in  which  we  live  look  sav- 
age and  barbarous,  in  comparison  of  the  habits  of  these  un- 
instructed,  illiterate,  and  una^sthetic  Jews,  living  nearly  two 
thousand  years  before  Christ  came  into  the  world. 

These  animals  that  were  ofiered  in  sacrifice  were  always 
fit  for  human  food.     This  law  is  not,  I  believe,  morally  bind- 


THE    CONTRAST.  203 

ing  now ;  the  animal  that  rechcwcd  its  food,  and  whose  hoof 
was  divided  into  two  parts,  was  alone  fit  for  human  food  to 
a  Jew,  and  also  for  sacrifice  on  his  altar.  For  instance,  the 
pig  was  not  allowed  to  be  eaten  bj  the  Jew — it  was  ac- 
counted unclean.  So,  in  the  same  manner,  the  dog,  the 
horse,  with  the  wild  beasts  —  necessarily  unclean  —  were 
not  allowed  to  be  eaten  by  the  Jews.  And  you  will  find, 
now,  that  your  health  is  very  much  connected  with  the  ob- 
servance of  these  great  laws ;  and,  it  may  turn  out,  on  riper 
investigation,  that  these  laws,  while  they  seemed  to  have 
reference  only  to  religious  rites,  were  connected  with  the 
social  and  physical  well-being  of  the  race  of  which  we  form 
a  part.  The  animals  chosen  for  sacrifice  were  strictly  to  be 
what  were  called  "  clean  animals."  This  was  intended  to 
indicate  that  as  the  Jew  could  only  eat  the  clean  animals, 
so  it  was  only  the  clean  animals  that  were  offered  in  sacri- 
fice. Perhaps  it  meant,  too,  that  just  as  what  we  eat  is  in- 
corporated into  our  frame,  and  becomes  part  and  parcel  of 
our  bodies,  so  the  Jew's  interest  in  his  sacrifices  should  be 
something  closer  than  sight,  —  something  more  intimate  than 
mere  presence.  It  should  be  true  of  him  and  of  us,  "  We 
live ;  yet  not  we,  but  Christ  liveth  in  us."  "  My  flesh  is 
meat  indeed,  my  blood  is  drink  indeed,"  — that  is,  we  should 
be  so  completely  his  that  we  are  members  of  his  body  —  our 
happiness,  our  peace,  our  strength,  our  prospects,  not  ours, 
but  Christ's  ;  and  ours  because  Christ's,  and  received  through 
him. 

In  the  second  place,  the  sacrifices  were  required  to  be 
very  valuable.  If  a  man  was  very  rich,  according  to  his 
wealth  he  was  to  give  his  offering ;  if  he  Avas  poor,  he  was 
to  give  that  which  lie  could  afford ;  — and  the  poor  woman 
that  brought  her  turtledoves  as  a  sacrifice,  was  as  acceptable  ■ 
in  the  sight  of  God,  as  the  rich  man  that  brought  his  ox. 
But  the  rich  man  was  not  to  say.  Therefore  I  will  bring  pig- 
eons as  a  sacrifice ;  but  each,  according  to  his  ability,  Avas  to 


204  THE    CONTRAST. 

offer  that  which  became  him.  And  in  these  sacrifices,  too, 
there  may  have  been  certain  types  and  symbols  that  Avere  no 
doubt  of  value.  The  patient  ox,  the  meek  lamb,  the  gentle 
dove,  may  have  been  prefigurations  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ ; 
but  the  great  idea  that  they  inculcated  —  line  upon  line,  and 
precept  upon  precept,  here  a  little,  there  a  little  —  was  the 
idea  of  atonement.  The  great  truth  wath  which  the  Jew 
was  indoctrinated  in  all  his  sacrifices,  was  this  —  that  without 
shedding  of  blood  there  could  be  no  remission  of  sin.  The 
great  idea  that  God  designed  to  impress  upon  the  minds  of 
the  offerers,  was  this  —  that  pardon  of  sin  and  sacrifice  were 
in  some  shape  inseparable,  and  that  without  a  victim's  death 
there  never  could  be  the  sinner's  forgiveness.  Now,  a  great 
thought  impressed  upon  a  people,  and  constantly  elucidated, 
ends  in  great  acts.  You  very  rarely  find  that  a  truth  intro- 
duced into  the  human  mind  is  altogether  without  fruit  in  the 
human  life  ;  and,  in  order  fully  to  develop  and  render  clear 
this  idea,  you  will  observe  that  the  priest  laid  his  hand  upon 
the  victim's  head,  and  confessed  the  sins  of  the  people.  Thus, 
every  Jew  was  taught  the  idea  of  transference  of  sin  —  trans- 
ferring the  similitude  of  his  sin  to  the  creature  slain,  and  his 
going  free  because  that  creature  was  slain.  The  idea  of  a 
sin-bearer,  as  well  as  a  sin-sacrifice,  was  thus  made  constant- 
ly familiar  to  the  Jew.  And  then  the  lesson  still  lasts  for  us. 
How  beautifully  does  that  express  what  has  been  done  by 
Christ !  The  Jew  came,  laid  his  hand  upon  the  head  of  the 
victim,  and  confessed  his  sins  over  it ;  the  victim  was  slain, 
utterly  consumed  before  God.  The  Christian  lays  not  his 
literal  hand  upon  a  literal  victim,  but  he  lays  the  trust  of  his 
soul  upon  an  unseen,  but  not  an  unknown,  Christ ;  and  thus 
reposing  the  hand  of  his  heart,  the  confidence  of  his  soul, 
upon  Him  on  whom  were  laid  the  iniquities  of  us  all,  for  his 
name's  sake  we  are  justified,  acquitted,  and  accepted  of  God. 
And  hence,  whenever  the  apostles  designed  to  teach  that 
great  truth  which  the  Socinian  so  ignorantly  denies  —  that 


THE    CONTRAST.  205 

Christ's  death  was  an  atonement,  they  could  not  have  used 
language  that  more  distinctly  or  emphatically  describes  it.    I 
say,  if  you  want  to  teach  it,  I  defy  you  to  employ  language 
that  more  clearly,  distinctly,  and  emphatically  inculcates  the 
expiatory  character  of  Christ's  death  than  that  which  the 
apostles  employ.     And  when  they  did  so,  the  Jews,  accus- 
tomed for  four  thousand  years  to  sacrificial  rites,  and  the 
Gentiles,  still  retaining,  from  tradition,  some  distorted  re- 
mains of  primeval  sacrifice,  were  both  preimred  to  under- 
stand them.     And  thus  Christ,  regarded  as  an  atonement, 
was  not  the  objectionable  thought  to  the  Gentile.     There  is 
no  evidence  that  the  Gentiles  objected  strongly  to  the  idea 
of  Christ's  death  being  atoning ;  what  they  could  not  believe 
was   that   he   had   risen   from   the   dead ;  —  and  the  Jews 
had  no  doubt  of  the  meaning  of  Christ's  death  being  aton- 
ing ;  their  only  doubt  was,  whether  Christ  was  the  Messiah 
promised  to  the  fathers.     But  the  apostle  argues  with  great 
force  in  this  chapter  on  the  superiority  of  Christ's  sacrifice 
to  all  these ;  for,  he  argues,  with  unconquerable  logic,  —  If 
these,  the  sacrifices  of  Levi,  "  sanctified,"  —  that  is,  made 
outwardly  clean,  "  to  the  purifying  of  the  flesh ; "   that  is, 
translated  into  Levitlcal  language,  if  the  Jew  was  ceremoni- 
ally clean,  admissible  into  his  temple,  entitled  to  a  place  in 
his  nation,  having  a  right  to  all  the  jDrivIleges  that  belonged 
to  the  Jew  in  the  literal  Canaan  —  how  much  more  will  the 
Christian,  the  true  Jew,  be  admitted  to  all  the  privileges  of 
the  Christian  economy,  and  to  the  everlasting  Canaan,  the 
true  rest  that  remains  for  all  the  people  of  God  !     The  Le- 
vitlcal sacrifices  gave  outward  cleanness,  outward  rights,  out- 
ward privileges,  outward  hopes ;  Christ's  sacrifice  gives  in- 
ward character,  inward  peace,  inward  joy.  Inward  hope  ;  and, 
if  these  outward  sacrifices  gave  all  these  national  privileges 
to  that  people,  how  much  more  shall  the  sacrifice  of  Christ 
give  pardon,  peace,  joy,  to  all  mankind,  that  are  taught  by 

18 


206  THE    CONTRAST. 

his  blessed  Spirit  to  rest  on  him,  and  to  accept  his  sacrifice 
as  their  only  title  to  heaven ! 

There  is  something  in  this  most  comprehensive  —  the 
"  How  much  more  ! "  is  inexhaustible  in  its  meaning.  If  the 
Jew  got  so  much  by  his  sacrifices,  what  language  shall  ex- 
press, what  words  shall  paint,  the  blessings  that  shall  flow  to 
the  worst  of  sinners  through  faith  in  the  death  and  sacrifice  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  ? 

The  apostle  says,  "  Christ  through  the  eternal  Spirit  offered 
himself  to  God."  You  have  h(3re  proof  of  the  doctrine  of 
the  Trinity — Christ,  the  offerer;  the  Spirit,  through  whom 
he  ofiered  ;  and  God  the  Father,  to  whom  he  offered.  And 
thus,  when  we  are  baptized,  we  are  baptized  in  the  name  of 
Christ,  that  offered  the  sacrifice ;  in  the  name  of  the  Spirit, 
througli  whom  he  offered  it ;  and  in  the  name  of  the  Father, 
to  whom  he  offered  it.  And  when  we  are  blessed,  sacrifi.ce 
is  still  interwoven  with  it.  We  are  blessed  in  the  name  of 
the  Father,  to  whom  he  offered  it ;  in  the  name  of  Christ,  by 
whom  the  offering  was  made ;  and  in  the  name  of  the  Spirit, 
through  whom  the  offering  was  made.  There  is  found  in  the 
baptismal  name,  there  is  found  in  the  daily  blessing,  the  idea 
of  sacrifice  and  sin  forgiveness.  It  runs  through  the  whole 
Christian  economy ;  giving  it  all  its  coloring,  its  shape,  its 
light,  and  its  life. 

Christ  himself  was  the  priest.  He,  it  is  said,  offered  for 
us.  And  what  a  blessed  thought  it  is  that  we  need  no  priests 
in  the  Christian  economy  now,  because  there  is  nothing  for 
them  to  do.  Christ  offered  himself — an  Infinite  Offerer, 
presenting  an  infinite  sacrifice :  if  not  sufficient,  nothing  can 
be  ;  and  if  sufficient,  what  is  the  use  of  priests  ?  Mark  the 
distinction :  Christian  ministers  are  called  ambassadors,  but 
never  priests  officially.  Now  Avhat  is  the  difference  between 
the  two  ?  A  priest  is  a  man  that  holds  a  position  before 
God;  an  ambassador  that  puts  God's  Avill  clearly  and  plainly 


THE    CONTKAST.  207 

before  iis.  The  priest  jiscends  from  the  sinner  to  God,  mak- 
ing roeonclliahoii ;  the  ambassador  comes  from  God  down  to 
the  sinner,  prochximing  reconciliation.  Therefore,  to  admit 
a  Christian  minister  to  be  a  sacrificing  priest,  is  simply  to  be 
guilty  of  utter  apostasy  from  all  that  is  distinctive  of  and  pe- 
culiar to  that  religion  where  we  have  not  a  sacrilice  to  make 
US  priests  between  man  and  God  ;  but  a  sacrifice  to  proclaim 
from  God —  God  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself,  not  im- 
puting to  men  their  trespasses. 

And  as  Christ  was  the  Priest,  so  we  read,  in  the  next  place, 
he  was  the  Sacrifice.  All  the  sacrifices  then  perished.  Ilis 
words,  "  It  is  finished ! "  rung  the  death-knell  of  them  all. 
Aaron,  and  Levi,  and  Moses,  and  all  the  priests  of  the  Tab- 
ernacle, stood  around  Calvary  when  Christ  died,  and  when 
he  said,  "  It  is  finished  !  "  they  added,  "  Amen  !  Our  work 
is  done  ;  the  Great  Workman  is  here  ;  our  sacrifices  are  fin- 
ished, the  True  Sacrifice  has  come.  Tliere  is  nothing  more 
for  us  to  do ;  the  transient  is  merged  in  the  eternal,  the  pro- 
visional is  merged  in  the  perfect;  Christ  is  come;  and  he 
hath  offered  one  sacrifice  for  sin,  once  for  all.  No  other  is 
possible  ;  no  other  is  needed.  Instead  of  thinking  of  others, 
let  us  rest  more  intensely  upon  this  once  for  all,  for  the  sins 
of  all  that  believe." 

And  what  a  truth  is  here!  Deity,  the  altar;  Jesus  — 
God-man  —  the  priest;  his  humanity,  the  victim.  The  altar 
was  not  the  cross,  but  the  Godhead  ;  the  priest  was  not  man, 
but  Christ  himself:  and  the  victim  was  his  own  spotless  self, 
without  spot,  without  blemish,  —  his  own  holy  and  perfect 
humanity.  AVhat  a  grand  truth  is  this,  my  dear  friends ; 
how  instructive  to  us,  that  our  religion  is  built  upon  that  in 
which  a  Triune  Jehovah  was  concerned  ;  and  if  we  rest  here, 
nothing  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God, 
that  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord.  He  offered  himself  by  the 
Spirit.  You  will  find  froiti  Christ's  conception  to  the  close 
of  his  life  constant  allusions  to  the  Spirit  taking  a  part ;  but 


208  THE    CONTRAST. 

the  very  fact  that  He  offered  himself —  no  man  living  can 
offer  himself  a  sacrifice ;  no  man  living  has  a  right  to  do  it ; 
he  may  commit  suicide,  or  he  may  commit  murder,  but  he 
cannot  offer  himself,  —  the  fact  that  Jesus  offered  himself,  is 
the  best  possible  evidence  that  Jesus  was  God. 

The  great  truth  which  the  apostle  draws  from  this  is,  that 
he  might  "  purge  your  conscience  from  dead  works  to  serve 
the  living  God."  The  great  truth  is,  that  the  very  first  effect 
of  the  atonement  is  to  be  the  extinction  of  that  which  is  the 
fever  of  the  conscience  —  remorse  ;  and  the  introduction  of 
that  which  is  the  healing  of  the  conscience  —  the  peace 
which  passeth  understanding ;  the  purifying  of  the  conscience 
from  dead  works,  to  serve  the  living  God.  Insensibility  may 
exist  in  men  who,  by  constant  excitement  of  the  world,  keep 
down  thought ;  but  wherever  there  is  a  thinking  man,  with 
the  knowledge  of  the  New  Testament  and  the  Saviour,  there 
must  be,  at  the  recollection  of  sin,  remorse.  And  there  is 
no  feeling,  I  believe,  so  terrible  as  remorse.  I  can  conceive 
no  agony  more  terrible  than  that.  The  poet,  though  not  a 
Christian,  describes  it  when  he  says, 

"  The  man  that  broods  o'er  shiful  deeds 
Is  like  a  scorpion  girt  with  fire, 
In  circles  narrowing  as  it  glows, 
The  flames  around  the  captive  close ; 
So  does  the  gnilty  soul  expire, 
Like  to  the  scorpion  girt%ith  fire. 
So  writhes  the  mind  remorse  has  riven, 
Unfit  for  earth,  undoom'd  to  heaven ; 
Darkness  above,  despair  beneath. 
Around  it  flame,  Avithin  it  death." 

Such  is  remorse  in  its  intensest  form ;  and  every  one  has 
some  knowledge  what  it  is,  though  he  never  has  had  any  ex- 
perience of  its  terrible  intensity.  Then  how  is  the  conscience 
purged  from  this  ?  If  I  address  a  sinner  in  this  assembly, 
who  has  the  feeling  of  remorse  at  the  recollection  of  sin,  how 


THE    CONTRAST.  209 

does  this  atonement  take  it  away?  Not  b}'^  destroyin<^  eon- 
science.  Peter's  conscience  was  more  sensitive  after  for- 
giveness than  it  was  before.  Not,  in  the  second  place,  hy 
destroying  the  recollection  of  sin.  You  cannot  forget  a  sin ; 
if  done,  it  cannot  be  cancelled,  and  ever  after  you  must  rec- 
ollect it.  In  heaven  they  may  recollect  sin  on  earth  ;  and 
praise  llim  only  the  more  who  graciously  forgave  it.  It  is 
not,  in  the  next  place,  by  showing  sin  itself  in  a  different  as- 
pect to  man  after  he  is  converted.  Then  how  is  it  ?  Not 
by  your  forgetting  sin  ;  not  by  the  conscience  becoming  dead 
to  sin  ;  not  by  sin  itself  being  changed  in  its  essential  charac- 
ter ;  but  by  this  —  that  you  see  in  that  Atonement  in  which 
you  trust  that  every  thing  that  sin  did  is  completely  destroyed, 
that  every  ruin  that  sin  made  is  rebuilt.  Was  the  law  bro- 
ken ?  The  atonement  has  magnified  it.  Was  God  dishon- 
ored ?  Through  Christ  he  is  glorified.  Are  you  separated 
from  God  ?  By  the  atonement  you  are  united  to  him.  Are 
you  strangers  and  aliens  by  nature  ?  By  this  atonement 
you  are  brought  near  to  him.  And  your  own  minds  can  see 
that  the  process  of  redemption  so  completely  covers  the 
wreck  or  havoc  that  sin  has  made,  that  you  repose  in  perfect 
confidence  upon  it ;  and  the  peace  that  passeth  understand- 
ing becomes  your  possession ;  so  that  justified  by  faith  we 
have  peace  with  God  —  not  because  we  forget  sin,  not  be- 
cause sin  is  not  sin,  not  because  conscience  is  dead,  but  be- 
cause we  lay  our  hands  upon  the  head  of  the  spotless  Lamb, 
and  are  sure  —  sure  as  we  are  that  we  do  so  —  that  all  the 
curse,  the  condemnation,  the  misery  of  sin,  is  put  away,  and 
so  there  is  sunshine  for  cloud,  and  peace  for  trouble,  and 
hope  where  there  was  none  before. 

18* 


CHAPTER    II. 

CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACRIFICE. 

"  If  we  say  that  we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not 
in  us.  If  we  confess  our  sins,  He  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our 
sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness."  —  1  John  i.  8,  9.  • 

You  will  see  at  once  the  allusion  of  the  text  to  some  of 
those  rites  about  which  we  have  been  reading  in  the  fifth 
chapter  of  the  Book  of  Leviticus.  I  stated,  at  the  close  of 
my  short  exposition  of  the  chapter,  that  confession  seems 
always  to  have  accompanied  the  sacrificial  offerings  of  the 
Jews ;  confession  referring  to  sacrifice,  the  sacrifice  giving  to 
that  confession  all  its  virtue  and  vitality.  We  shall  find  in- 
stances scattered  throughout  the  whole  Scripture  of  what 
confession  is  —  how  full,  how  free,  how  truly  the  expression 
of  the  inmost  sentiments  of  the  heart  —  not  only  in  the  New, 
but  in  the  Old  Testament  also.  We  have  a  very  beautiful 
definition  of  it  in  these  words,  in  1  Kings  viii.  47 :  "  Yet  if 
they  shall  bethink  themselves  in  the  land  whither  they  were 
carried  captives,  and  repent,  and  make  supplication  unto  thee 
in  the  land  of  them  that  carried  them  captives,  saying,  We 
have  sinned  and  have  done  perversely,  we  have  committed 
wickedness ;  and  so  return  unto  thee  with  all  their  heart,  and 
with  all  their  soul,  in  the  land  of  their  enemies,  which  led 
them  away  captive,  and  pray  unto  thee  toward  their  land, 
which  thou  gavest  unto  their  fathers,  the  city  which  tiiou 
hast  chosen,  and  the  house  which  I  have  built  for  thy  name ; 
then  hear  thou  their  prayer  and  their  supplication  in  heaven 
(210) 


CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACRIFICE.  211 

thy  dwelling-place,  and  maintain  their  cause,  and  forgive 
thy  people  that  have  sinned  against  thee."  We  have  an 
instance  of  it  equally  beautiful  in  the  prophet  Daniel,  where 
•we  read  that  Daniel  confessed  in  some  such  terms  as 
these :  —  "I  prayed  unto  the  Lord  my  God,  and  made  my 
confession,"  —  confession  always  suggestive  of  sacrifice  to  a 
Jew's  mind,  and  never  detached  or  dissociated  from  it,  — 
"  and  said,  O  Lord,  the  great  and  dreadful  God,  keeping  the 
covenant  and  mercy  to  them  that  love  him,  and  to  them  that 
keep  his  commandments ;  we  have  sinned,  and  have  com- 
mitted iniquity,  and  have  done  wickedly,  and  have  rebelled, 
even  by  departing  from  thy  precepts  and  from  thy  judg- 
ments ;  neither  have  we  hearkened  unto  thy  servants  the 
prophets,  which  spake  in  thy  name  to  our  kings,  our  princes, 
and  our  fathers,  and  to  all  the  people  of  the  land.  O  Lord, 
righteousness  belongeth  unto  thee,  but  unto  us  confusion  of 
faces,  as  at  this  day ;  to  the  men  of  Judah,  and  to  the  in- 
habitants of  Jerusalem,  and  unto  all  Israel,  that  are  near, 
and  that  are  far  off,  through  all  the  countries  whither  thou 
hast  driven  them,  because  of  their  trespass,  that  they  have 
trespassed  against  thee.  O  Lord,  to  us  belongeth  confusion 
of  face,  to  our  kings,  to  our  princes,  and  to  our  fathers,  be- 
cause we  have  sinned  against  thee.  To  the  Lord  our  God 
belong  mercies  and  forgivenesses,  though  we  have  rebelled 
against  him."  You  have,  therefore,  in  the  first  prescrij)tion 
from  the  Book  of  Kings,  what  is  to  be  the  nature  of  the 
confession ;  and,  in  this  instance,  of  prayer  by  Daniel 
himself,  a  specimen  of  true,  fervid  supplication  and  con- 
fession at  the  footstool  of  the  Almighty.  Li  the  Psalms  of 
David,  every  psalm  alternates  confession,  forgiveness,  and 
thanksgiving. 

Let  us  inquire  and  try  to  ascertain  what  are  some  of  the 
characteristics  of  true  confession  of  sin.  He  that  has  never 
confessed  his  sins  to  God  knows  nothing  of  what  the  very 
first  requirement  or  instinctive  suggestion  of  Christianity  is. 


212  CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACraFICE. 

If  we  have  never  confessed  to  God  when  no  ear  couhl  hear 
but  his,  we  have  never  yet  sought  truly,  earnestly,  and  fer- 
vently, the  forgiveness  of  our  sins ;  and  if  we  have  never 
sought  it,  we  have  it  not ;  and  if  we  have  it  not,  it  is  not 
because  we  are  poor,  or  ignorant,  or  unable,  but  wholly  be- 
cause we  are  unwilling  humbly  to  confess  our  sins,  and  to 
seek  mercy  and  forgiveness  from  God. 

Now,  as  flir  as  I  can  judge  from  all  instances  of  confes- 
sion recorded  in  the  Word  of  God,  we  shall  find  that 
wherever  there  was  genuine  confession  of  sin,  whether  it 
was  personal  and  private,  or  congregational  and  public,  it 
was  always  freely  felt  and  freely  expressed.  It  was  not 
something  wrung  from  the  j)arty  confessing  as  a  sort  of 
sacrifice,  or  a  sort  of  ordinance ;  but  it  was  the  free,  the 
full,  the  spontaneous  pouring  out  of  the  inmost  and  deepest 
compunctions  of  the  soul  in  earnest  prayer  and  communion 
with  God.  Pharaoh,  when  he  felt  the  judgments  of  God 
upon  him,  confessed  his  sins  only  to  return  to  his  sins  again. 
When  Balaam,  the  wicked  and  the  false  prophet,  saw  the 
angel,  he  confessed  his  sin,  but  it  was  not  true  confession. 
Judas,  when  he  flung  away  the  price  of  blood,  confessed  his 
sin  —  "I  have  betrayed  innocent  blood  !  "  But  these  crim- 
inals confessed  their  sins  just  in  some  such  way  as  sailors  in 
a  storm  fling  their  cargo  overboard,  their  hearts  almost 
going  after  it  —  obliged  to  do  it  in  the  hope  of  saving  the 
ship,  but  willing  rather  to  retain  it  if  they  could  save  their 
lives  while  they  did  so.  Pharaoh,  and  Judas,  and  Balaam, 
were  ready  to  get  rid  of  the  sins  that  were  conducting  down 
upon  their  heads  the  judgments  of  God,  not  that  they  liked 
the  sins  less,  but  that  they  feared  the  judgments  which  those 
sins  were  precipitating  upon  them.  This  is  not  true,  or 
Christian,  confession  of  sin. 

Wherever  there  is  true  confession,  it  will  be  full.  It  will 
not  be  the  confession  of  the  sin  that  lies  heaviest  on  the 
conscience  only,  nor  confession  'of  the  sins  last  recollected ; 


CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACRIFICE.  213 

but  the  confession  of  all  sin.  It  will  be  taking  all  the 
shame  and  the  guilt  of  sin  to  yourself.  Till  Adam  became 
a  Christian,  his  confession  was  not  Christian  confession. 
"When  his  sin  was  brought  to  his  conscience  first,  he  said, 
"  The  woman  that  thou  gavest  me,  she  gave  me,  and  I  did 
eat."  He  distributed  the  blame  between  God  and  Eve ; 
and,  as  for  himself,  he  was  as  innocent  as  a  lamb.  "  The 
woman  that  thou  gavest  me,"  —  why  did  you  give  her  to 
me  ?  "  The  looman  that  thou  gavest  to  me,  she  gave  me, 
and  I  did  eat."  And  then  Eve,  showing  how  human  nature 
had  suddenly  become  depraved,  when  she  was  spoken  to 
said,  "  The  serpent  beguiled  me,  and  I  did  eat ; "  but,  as  for 
me,  I  am  perfectly  innocent.  Why  did  you  make  the  ser- 
pent ?  Why  did  you  suffer  him  to  come  here  ?  There  can 
be  no  guilt  in  me ;  I  am  thus  perfectly  innocent.  But  when 
they  were  brought  to  see  themselves  in  the  right  light,  and 
to  see  the  woman's  seed  that  should  bruise  the  serpent's 
head,  they  learned  with  Abel,  their  second  son,  to  confess 
their  sins  freely,  as  well  as  fully,  and  to  seek  forgiveness 
only  through  the  blood  of  sprinkling.  So  Judas,  when  he 
confessed,  confessed  the  sin  that  was  last  perpetrated,  and 
the  worst  —  his  betrayal  of  innocent  blood ;  but  he  did  not 
confess  the  previous  covetousness  that  led  to  it.  A  Chris- 
tian's confession  of  his  sins  to  God  is  full ;  he  not  only  con- 
fesses outward  acts,  but  inward  feelings.  And  that  man 
who,  when  God  alone  hears,  can  unveil  to  God  sins  that 
nobody  else  can  see,  and  short-comings  that  nobody  else 
dreams  of,  and  seeks  forgiveness  for  those  sins  that  are  hid- 
den from  the  world,  as  well  as  for  those  that  the  world  takes 
cognizance  of — the  man,  in  short,  who  can  say  from  his 
very  heart,  "  O  God,  cleanse  me  from  secret  sins ! "  gives 
the  strongest  evidence  that  his  confession  is  accompanied 
wdtli  forgiveness  from  the  only  Atonement  from  which  for- 
giveness comes. 

In  the  next  place,  true  confession  of  sins,  such  as  is  indi- 


214  CONFESSION    THROUGH       >     RIFICE. 

catecl  here,  mnst  be  not  only  free,  nc     ( ^ly  full,  but  sir.icere 
and  uni'eigiied.     You  may  repeat  the  m^t  bp^iiutiful  litii    ^y 
that  ever  was  composed,  and  yet  not  co  i'ess  one  single  .  '^ 
You  may  use  words  the  most  express!^     of  true  contrii       , 
and  yet  there  may  not  be  the  faintest    r'ontrition  in  y 
heart.     Your  lips  may  be  most  eloquent,       ir  heart  may  ■ 
wholly  dumb.     Now  God  does  not  listen    to  what  a  m; 
says,  but  to  what  a  man's  heart  beats.     God  regards  n-. 
outward  devotion  only,  but  the  heart,  whether  it  be  devc 
tional  or   not.      Many  a  person  prays  who  does  not  say 
many  prayers  ;  and  many  a  person  says  many  prayers  who 
never  prays  at  all.     What  God  looks  to,  therefore,  as  the 
organ  of  true  confession  is,  the  heart,  —  without  the  voice 
if  you  like,  but  never  the  voice  without  the  heart.     Both,  if 
you  can  ;  but  if  one  must  be  absent,  let  it  be  the  voice,  not 
the  heart. 

Confession  must  be  to  God,  and  to  God  alone.  Fallen 
and  degraded  as  man  is,  he  degrades  himself  below  the 
pitch  to  which  sin  has  brought  him,  when  he  kneels  down 
before  a  priest,  so  called,  and  confesses  in  his  ear  the  secret 
thoughts,  and  imaginations,  and  sins  of  his  heart.  That  is 
deep  and  thorough  degradation.  God  never  degrades  a  sin- 
ner, though  lie  will  always  humble  him :  but  such  confes- 
sion as  that  is  not  humbling,  it  is  degradation.  And  I  may 
here,  without  entering  into  controversy,  just  notice  the  text, 
very  often  quoted  for  it :  — "  Confess  your  faults  one  to 
another."  There  is  a  note  in  the  Eoman  Catholic  Bible  be- 
low this  text,  which  says,  '^  Confess  your  faults  one  to 
another,"  —  that  is,  "  Confess  your  sins  to  the  priest."  That 
is  a  very  extraordinary  inference,  — "  Confess  your  sins 
one  to  another — that  is,  confess  your  sins  to  the  priests!" 
And  very  justly  did  a  poor  Irish  convert,  under  that  noble 
movement  —  the  Irish  Church  Missions,  say,  "  Here  is  the 
advantage  of  notes  to  our  Catholic  Bible  ;  for  how  should 
we  have  found  out  that  we  ought  to  confess  to  the  priest,  if 


CONFES  ^.  TIIKOUGII    SACRIFICE.  215 

it  had  not  been  for,,i!   .  note  below  the  text  in  St.  James, — 
'  Cpnfess  your  siu^O/C  to  another;  that  is,  to  the  priests?' 
'\i,^  never  could  I  ,vye  discovered  it  except  for  that '  note.' " 
l.,:?^  that  note  is  n     ^the  interpretation  of  the  text,  but  the 
^juration  and  di  lorting  of  the  text.     The  text  is,  "  Con- 
;,s  your  iaultv     .le  to  another;"  and  as  to  the  whole  sys- 
.;ai  of  confessio  p  based  upon  it,  there  is  here  its  utter  dis- 
,oof.     ''Is  any ^  sick  among  you?"     What  is  he  to  do? 
^.et  him  call  for  the  priests  of  the  church?     No!  no  such 
officer  is  known  in  the  Bible  ;  but  let  him  call  for  the  "  eld- 
ers "  of  the   church ;    and  then,   when   he  calls  for  them, 
what   are  they  to   do?     Hear  his  confession  and  absolve 
him  ?    Ko  !  nothing  of  the  kind  —  let  him  call  for  the  elders 
of  tlie  church,  and  let  them  pray  over  him.     Nothing  is 
here  about  absolution.     And  then,  if   he   hath   committed 
sins,  not  the  elders  of  the  church  shall  forgive  them ;  but 
they,  the   sins,  shall  be  forgiven  him.     And  then,  confess 
your  faults,  not  to  a  priest,  but  confess  your  faults  "  one  to 
another."     If  I  have  said  a  word  to  you  that  has  given  you 
otfcnce,  it  is  my  duty  to  confess  it,  and  your  duty  to  forgive 
it ;  and  if  you  have  said  a  Avord  against  me,  it  is  your  duty 
to  confess,  and  my  privilege  to  forgive.     But  here  is  a  dis- 
tinction which  I  wish  you  to  notice.     A  sin  has  two  aspects. 
If  I  should  steal  a  sovereign  from  a  fellow  sinner,  my  friend, 
that  act  would  have  two  aspects ;  one  aspect  would  be  the 
injury  it  does  to  my  brother  —  the  other  aspect  would  be 
the  sin  in  its  rebound  that  I  commit  against  God.     Now,  as 
far  as  it  is  injury  done  to  my  brother,  he  ought  to  forgive  it, 
and  he  can  forgive  it,  and  do  it  better  than  the  priest  can, 
because  the  priest  has  nothing  to  do  with  it ;  it  was  not  com- 
mitted against  him,  but  against  my  brother :  but,  as  far  as  it 
is  sin  committed  against  God,  and  only  against  him,  God 
alone  can  forgive  it,  and  to  God  alone,  therefore,  I  confess 
it.    The  fault  —  the  injury —  that  I  have  committed  against 
another,  that  other  forgives ;  but  the  sin  that  is  in  it,  which 


216  CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACRIFICE. 

slioots  from  the  earth  and  strikes  against  heaven,  God, 
against  whom  it  is  committed,  alone  can  forgive.  Hence 
David  said  —  what  we  sung  or  prayed  this  morning  — 
"  Against  thee,  thee  only  have  I  sinned,"  —  that  means,  I 
have  injured  Uriah,  but  I  have  sinned  against  thee.  There- 
fore he  seeks  forgiveness,  not  from  the  j^riest,  but  from 
God  — "  Have  mercy  upon  me,  O  God,  according  to  thy 
loving-kindness ;  according  unto  the  multitude  of  thy  ten- 
der mercies  blot  out  my  transgressions." 

Let  me  allude  to  another  characteristic  of  all  true  and 
genuine  confession.  All  confession  of  sin  is  specific.  While 
there  is  a  general  confession  fitted  for  the  general  congrega- 
tion, there  is  the  specific  confession,  peculiar  to  individuals. 
Hence,  in  some  of  the  most  memorable  instances  in  the  Old 
Testament,  we  find  the  specific  sin  added  to  the  general. 
Thus  in  Judges  x.  10,  "  we  have  sinned  against  thee,  both 
because  we  have  forsaken  our  God,  and  also  served  Baalim  " 
—  the  specific  sin  added.  So  the  Israelites  confessed  that 
"  we  have  committed  sin  ;  we  have  added  unto  our  sins  this," 
namely,  "  that  we  have  asked  us  a  king."  Added  to  their 
general  confession  was  the  specific  sin  that  lay  the  heaviest 
upon  the  nation's  conscience,  or  upon  the  individual's  heart. 
We  may  notice,  too,  that  where  there  is  real,  specific  con- 
fession of  sin,  there  is  always  aggravation,  rather  than  dimi- 
nution, of  the  sins  that  are  confessed.  Whenever  the  mai. 
who  is  not  enlightened,  nor  thoroughly  in  earnest,  confesses 
liis  sins,  there  is  always  the  echo  of  an  apology ;  he  always 
admits  extenuating  circumstances.  But  wherever  you  find 
in  God's  Word  true  confession  of  sin,  you  find  it  always  in 
the  language  rather  of  aggravation  than  otherwise.  For  in- 
stance, the  Apostle  Paul,  after  he  was  converted,  confesses  his 
sin  thus,  in  Acts  xxvi. :  "  Which  thing  I  also  did  in  Jerusa- 
lem ;  and  many  of  the  saints  did  I  shut  up  in  prison,  having  re- 
ceived authority  from  the  chief  priests  ;  and  when  they  were 
put  to  death,  I  gave  my  voice  against  them.     And  I  pun- 


CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACRIFICE.  217 

islied  them  oft  in  every  synagogue,  and  compelled  them  to 
blaspheme  ;  and  being  exceedingly  mad  again&t  them  T  per- 
secuted them  even  unto  strange  cities  ; "  every  word  and 
epithet  implying  the  unnecessary  cruelty  he  practised,  and 
the  aggravated  nature  of  the  transgressions  which  he  here 
commemorates.  So  did  Peter.  In  the  touching  incident 
where  our  Lord  looked  upon  him,  and  Peter  went  out  and 
wept  bitterly,  it  is  added,  "  When  he  thought  thereon ; "  it  is 
in  our  translation  in  Mark  xiv.,  "  he  thought  thereon ;  "  but 
it  means  literally,  "  When  he  cast  up  all  in  his  mind ; "  when 
he  recollected  how  he  was  chosen  from  being  a  fisherman  to 
be  an  apostle  ;  how  miracles  had  fed  him ;  how  mercies  had 
accompanied  him  ;  how  Jesus  had  honored  him  as  a  bosom 
friend ;  how  he  had  delivered  him  from  every  danger  and 
from  every  difficulty,  and  instructed  him  in  ignorance  ;  — 
when  he  cast  up  all  these  things  in  his  mind,  and  then  felt 
that  he  had  denied  such  a  Benefactor,  he  went  out  and  wept 
bitterly. 

We  thus  see,  that  wherever  there  is  true  confession,  there 
will  be,  not  the  diminution  or  extenuation  of  the  offence,  but 
the  full,  candid,  and  specific  admission  of  it. 

There  will  be,  in  the  next  place,  true  sorrow.  It  is  said 
that  David  watered  his  couch  with  his  tears  ;  and  every  tear 
in  David's  case  had  a  tongue.  God  "  heard  his  weeping." 
And  the  sorrow  that  is  often  deepest  is  least  seen.  "  When 
thou  fastest,  thou  art  not  to  appear  to  men  to  fast."  The 
sorrow  that  is  deepest  rarely  finds  outward  expression  ;  and 
often  there  is  the  keenest  where  there  is  the  least  evidence 
of  it  before  men.  But  wherever  there  is  genuine  confession, 
there  must  be  grief;  the  more  real,  as  we  are  dealing  in 
confession  —  what,  indeed,  is  essential  to  do  —  not  with  a 
judge,  not  with  a  tyrant-ruler,  but  with  God  our  Father. 
Plence  confession  of  sin  is  never  that  of  a  criminal  confessing 
to  a  judge,  but  of  a  son  confessing  to  his  father.  Accord- 
ingly, in  those  confessions  that  we  find  in  the  Bible,  there  is 

19 


218  CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACRIFICE. 

always  tliis  filial  character.  Daniel  says,  "  To  the  Lord  our 
God,"  —  not  "  to  the  Lord  God ;  "  but  to  the  Lord  our  God 
—  filial  trust.  And  again,  the  prodigal  said,  "  I  will  arise 
and  go  to  w?/y  father."  Pie  had  asked  from  his  master  bread, 
and  he  gave  him  the  husks  that  the  swme  did  eat.  He  then 
says,  "I  will  arise,  and  go  to  my  father."  Even  in  his  es- 
trangement from  home,  that  beautiful  relationship  liad  nei- 
ther been  merged  nor  forgotten.  "  We  have  an  Advocate," 
not  with  a  judge,  but  an  "  Advocate  with  the  Father,  and  he 
is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins."  Thus,  then,  terror  must 
not  blind  the  eye  to  the  sight  and  apprehension  of  a  Father ; 
nor  must'  our  recollections  of  God's  justice,  God's  character 
as  the  Creator  and  Governor  of  the  universe,  ever  cause  us 
to  lose  sight  of  this  —  that  God  is  our  Father,  and  that  we 
are  Ids  children ;  and  you  will  find  that  the  sense  of  the  re- 
lationship "  Father,"  will  make  the  sorrow  deepest,  the  com- 
punction tenderest,  the  confession  truest,  fullest,  and  most 
real. 

Yv^herever  there  is  true  confession,  of  the  kind  I  have 
mentioned,  there  Avill  be,  in  as  far  as  our  conduct  to  man  is 
concerned,  reformation  ;  in  as  far  as  our  relationship  to  God 
is  concerned,  reparation.  Those  things  which  we  have  done 
which  we  believe  to  be  wrong,  it  will  be  our  study,  our  elFort, 
to  correct.  The  more  we  know  of  each  other,  the  more  Ave 
se(.'  remains  to  be  forgiven ;  the  less  we  knovr,  the  more  we 
ei^uaT ;  but  he  that  knows  his  own  nature  best  will  be  most 
cui-ipassionate  to  the  sins,  most  forgiving  to  \\\(}.  faults  and 
iniquities,  of  others.  But,  in  reference  to  God,  what  repa- 
ration can  we  make  ?  If  vre  have  misused  our  youth,  we 
cannot  recall  its  morning  beauty  ;  if  we  have  abused  our 
manhood,  we  cannot  bring  back  the  sun  from  the -western 
horizon  to  his  noon,  and  live  our  life  again.  Then,  what  is 
to  be  done  ?  All  that  Ave  can  do  is,  in  the  language  of  the 
apostle,  to  seek  for  full  forgiveness  for  the  i)ast  througli  the 
blood  of  sprinkhng,  Avhich  is  ever  offered,  and  to  redeem  the 


COXFKSSIOX    THROUGH    SACRIFICE.  219 

time  —  that  is,  to  i)ut  into  the  remaining  years  of  our  life 
intenser  iisefuhiess  to  man,  intenser  devotedness  to  God. 
Wherever  there  is  genuine  confession  of  sin,  there  will  be, 
not,  indeed,  any  thing  offered  to  God  as  a  propitiation,  or 
any  thing  pledged  to  God  as  an  atonement.  The  past  never 
can  be  recalled ;  its  deeds  cannot  be  undone.  I  think  it  is 
one  of  the  most  solemn  thoughts  in  the  world,  that  an  act 
once  done  may  be  forgiven,  or  forgotten,  but  it  cannot  be 
annihilated  —  that  is  impossible.  A  thought  once  felt  may 
be  forgiven,  or  forgotten,  but  it  cannot  be  annihilated. 

The  future,  from  this  very  day,  is  open  ;  the  years  are  yet 
unpledged  to  sin,  folly,  and  wickedness.  AV'ell,  if  there  be 
earnest  supplication  for  forgiveness  for  the  past,  the  best  evi- 
denc(.^  that  that  sup[)lication  has  been  sincere,  that  the  con- 
fession has  been  true,  will  be  that  we  shall  throw  greater  en- 
ei'gy  into  the  years  that  remain,  do  more  good  while  we  live, 
and  be  more  devoted  to  Him  who  has  pardoned  the  past,  and 
given  us  grace  to  make  better  use  of  the  future. 

Having  seen  what  confession  is,  let  me  notice,  what  fol- 
lows so  very  beautifully,  and  what  is  so  encouraging  to  those 
who  look  back  upon  a  past  misspent  —  and  no  past  of  any 
life  in  this  assembly  has  been  spent  as  it  sliould  be,  thou^li 
some  pasts  may  be  blacker  and  more  stained  than  otiic-r.'- : 
bat  the  futuni  is  before  us,  the  past  is  gone  from  us  —  we 
are  assured  that  "if  we  confess  our  sins,  God  is  faitiiful  and 
just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  un- 
righteousness." Now  let  me  show  how  veiy  remai-kable 
this  language  is.  .Just  in  these  very  words  we  have  opcmed 
out  the  distinctive  glory  and  excellence  of  real  evangelical 
Christianity  —  that  God  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive.  We 
can  easily  understand,  "  If  we  confess  our  sins  God  is  faith- 
ful and  just  to  punish  them."  We  can  understand  that  the 
justice  of  God  metes  out  penalty  for  crime,  Avages  for  work 
done  ;  but,  strange  sound  !  —  sound  that  the  ear  of  nature  is 
not  accustomed  to  —  if  we  confess  our  sins,  he  is  not  ready 


220  CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACRIFICE. 

to  punish  them,  not  faithful  and  just  to  destroy  us,  but  "  faith- 
ful and  just  to  forgive  us."  Now  this  is  a  truth  that  man 
has  the  greatest  difficulty  in  believing,  and  jet  it  is  the  very 
truth  that  God  is  ever  inculcating.  How  striking  such  words 
as  these  wherein  God  says  to  sinners  :  "  Come  now,,"  — 
how  beautiful  the  term  is  !  —  "  Come  now,  and  let  us  reason 
together."  God  asking  man  to  reason  with  him !  "  Though 
your  sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  white  as  snow :  thougli 
they  be  as  crimson,  they  shall  be  as  wool."  How  very  con- 
descending on  the  part  of  the  great  God  —  "  Come  now,  and 
let  us  reason  together :  though  your  sins  be  as  crimson,  they 
shall  be  as  wool !  " 

But  this  confession  to  God  —  "  if  we  confess  our  sins,  he 
is  faithful  to  forgive  "  —  assumes  that  he  hears  the  confes- 
sion. "If  we  confess,  he  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive." 
Then  God  hears  our  confession,  and  there  is  no  doubt  about 
it.  You  need  not  fear  lest  words  uttered  in  silence  and  se- 
crecy on  earth  have  no  echo  in  heaven  ;  you  need  not  doubt 
that  the  least  feeling  of  sorrow  that  sweeps  over  the  human 
heart  shall  send  a  shadow  into  the  presence  of  God  himself. 
He  hears  the  pulse  at  the  heart  —  the  thought,  the  Avish,  the 
feeling,  the  desire  —  faster  than  we  can  utter  them.  Man 
may  be  deaf,  priests  may  be  hostile,  but  God  ever  hears  if 
we  confess  our  sins.  Who  cares  whether  a  priest  be  willing 
or  unwilling  to  forgive  it  ?  we  need  not  feel  alarmed  at  it. 
If  we  confess  our  sins,  God  is  faithful,  whoever  be  unfaith- 
ful ;  and  God  is  just,  whoever  be  unjust,  to  forgive  us  our 
sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unrighteousness. 

But  what  is  meant  by  that  expression,  "  He  is  faithful "  to 
do  it  ?  Human  nature  may  arrive  at  this,  —  God  may  be 
merciful  to  forgive  us  ;  but  —  this  is  strange  —  "  foithful  and 
just  to  forgive  sin."  It  would  seem  altogether  the  very  re- 
verse of  forgiveness  that  would  flow  from  faithfulness  and 
justice ;  but  it  is  not  so.  To  be  faithful  means  to  be  stead- 
fast to  a  promise  made,  a  word  given,  or  a  declaration  ut- 


COXFESSIOX    THROUGH    SACRIFICE.  221 

tered.  Now  if  you  open  any  part  of  the  Bible  you  will  find 
it  full  of  promises  of  pardon,  full  of  invitations  to  pardon,  full 
of  types,  shadows,  institutions,  all  indicating  the  possibility 
of  jxirdon  of  sin.  In  one  part,  "  I  will  be  merciful  to  their 
iniquities ;  their  sins  and  their  transgressions  will  I  remem- 
ber no  more."  He  says  in  another  part,  "Let  the  wicked 
man  Ibrsake  his  way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his  thoughts, 
and  let  him  return  to  the  Lord,  and  he  will  have  mercy  upon 
him  ;  and  to  our  God,  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon."  "  All 
his  promises  in  Christ  are  yea,  and  Amen."  "  Faithful," 
says  an  apostle,  "  is  he  who  has  promised."  Now,  wherever 
you  find  a  promise  made  in  the  Bible  to  you  —  that  is,  to 
sinners  —  you  may  plead  it  with  God  in  prayer :  "  O  Lord, 
show  thyself  faithful  to  fulfil  in  my  happy  experience  this 
blessed  and  consolatory  promise ; "  and  the  answer  is,  "  God 
is  faithful."  You  need  not  doubt  it ;  you  may  assume  it,  you 
may  act  upon  it,  and  lay  the  whole  stress  of  the  future  upon 
the  reality  of  it. 

But  it  is  added,  he  is  not  only  fait/if id,  but  he  is  aho  just 
to  forgive  us  our  sins.  He  hjust  to  forgive  us  our  sins! 
Merciful  to  forgive,  we  do  understand;  but,  just  to  forgive! 
how  can  that  be  ?  Here  is  the  very  attribute,  justice,  which 
is  the  exactor  of  penalty,  declared  to  be  the  missionary  of 
pardon.  Here  is  the  very  attribute  that  we  have  always 
regarded  as  hostile  to  our  admission  into  heaven  now  pro- 
claimed to  be  not  only  friendly,  but  to  embosom  the  very 
riglit  and  title  of  our  admission.  Here  is  what  we  always 
rc^jarded  as  the  G;reat  obstruction  to  our  entrance  into  heaven 
announced  to  be  the  great  impulse,  and  incentive,  and  at- 
traction to  it.  How  can  this  be?  I  answer:  Exclude  the 
Atonement,  of  which  all  the  atonements  in  Leviticus  wci'e 
dim  prefigurations,  and  there  is  no  solution  of  it ;  l)ut  admit 
the  great  thought  of  an  Atonement,  and  it  is  as  plain  and 
clear  as  daylight  itself. 

Unless  there  be  some  process  by  which  God  can  \indi- 
19* 


222  CONFESSION    TnilOUGII    SACRIFICE. 

cate  Ills  law,  satisfy  his  own  everlasting  and  immutable 
attributes,  and  yet  extend  forgiveness,  God  cannot  be  faith- 
ful and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins.  But  there  is  such  a  pro- 
vision. Christ  bore  the  penalty,  paid  the  price,  endured 
the  curse,  exhausted  the  punishment  (vary  the  phraseology 
as  you  please)  ;  and  God,  having  received  from  him,  my 
representative  (I  do  not  stop  to  discuss  the  principle  of  ac- 
cepting a  substitute  for  us ;  I  only  assert  it  as  fact,  enun- 
ciated in  the  Bible)  —  God  having  accepted  Christ  as  my 
substitute  —  Christ  having  borne  all  that  I  had  deserved  as 
a  sinner,  and  having  done  all  that  I  owed  as  a  creature,  — 
there  is  no  sin  on  me  to  be  punished,  whatever  sin  there 
may  be  in  me  unworthy  of  heaven ;  for  I  can  plead  before 
God,  —  Why  should  I  suffer  when  my  Representative  has 
suffered  for  me  ?  Why  should  I  be  excluded  from  heaven 
when  my  Representative  has  made  a  way  for  me  ?  Thou 
art  a  just  God :  thou  dost  not  exact  the  price  twice ;  thou 
dost  not  demand  the  penalty  twice ;  and  therefore  in  Him 
who  is  my  representative,  my  substitute,  my  righteousness, 
I  ask  not  of  thy  mercy  only  to  forgive  me,  but  I  ask  of  thee 
to  be  faithful  to  thy  word,  and  just  by  Christ  Jesus,  to  for- 
give me  all  my  sins,  and  to  cleanse  me  from  all  unrighteous- 
ness. It  is  mercy  that  I  can  plead  it;  it  is  justice  that  God 
thus  bestows  it.  Do  not,  therefore,  if  I  speak  to  a  sinner  — 
or  rather,  to  a  Christian  —  do  not,  therefore,  think  that  the 
law  will  stand  in  your  way  to  heaven;  do  not  fear  that 
God's  attributes  will  stand  in  your  way  to  glory.  All  his 
attributes,  instead  of  being  your  enemies,  are  your  irresisti- 
ble and  eloquent  advocates.  God's  attributes  are  sentinels 
around  the  chiefest  of  sinners  that  flee  to  him  through 
Christ,  as  the  mountains  stand  around  Jerusalem.  In  other 
words,  there  is  no  condemnation  —  to  whom  ?  There  is  no 
curse,  no  hell,  no  punishment  —  to  whom?  Not  to  those 
that  are  perfect,  not  to  those  that  never  sinned,  —  but 
"there   is   no   condemnation   to   them   that   are  in  Christ 


CONFESSION    TIIROUGIT    SACRIFICE.  223 

Jesus,"  their  representative,  tlieir  substitute.  And  how 
beautiful  is  that  text  wliich  I  have  often  quoted,  — "  lie 
Avas  made  sin  for  us,  that  we  might  be  made  rigliteousness 
in  him  ! "  How  was  he  made  sin  for  us  ?  Our  sins  were 
hiid  on  him  —  therefore  he  bore  the  consequence.  How  are 
we  made  righteousness  by  him  ?  By  his  righteousness  haid 
upon  us  —  therefore  we  inherit  the  consequences.  If  God 
was  just  when  he  let  forth  his  wrath  upon  Christ  because 
of  our  sins  upon  him,  not  in  him,  God  will  be  but  just  to  let 
forth  the  expressions  of  his  love  because  of  Christ's  right- 
eousness upon  us,  not  in  us.  When  Christ  died  in  agony 
upon  the  cross,  there  was  nothing  in  him  worthy  of  death ; 
when  I  shall  be  admitted  into  heaven  at  the  judgment-seat, 
there  will  be  nothing  in  me  worthy  of  eternal  life.  Christ's 
title  to  a  cross  was  my  sin  on  him ;  and  my  title  to  a  weight 
of  glory  will  be  his  righteousness  upon  me.  God  therefore 
is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us 
from  all  unrighteousness.  What  a  glorious  truth !  No 
man  who  understands  justification  by  fliitli  in  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ  will  ever  become  a  papist  —  it  is  imj^ossible  ; 
and  nothing  will  save  you  from  superstition  and  delusion, 
and  all  the  mummeries  of  exploded  and  miserable  supersti- 
tion, except  a  clear  living  grasp  of  this,  that  we  need  noth- 
ing to  perfect  a  title  which  is  perfect,  because  Christ's;  we 
need  nothing  to  increase  an  atonement  which  is  all  effica- 
cious, because  Christ's ;  we  are  comj)lete  in  him,  all  our 
salvation  and  all  our  desire.  And  to  show  you  that  my 
conclusions  are  not  mere  conclusions  of  the  intellect,  an 
apostle  could  say,  after  speaking  of  such  truths  as  these, 
"  Who  shall  lay  any  thing  to  the  charge  of  God's  elect  ?  "  — 
that  is,  God's  people.  Will  God  do  it  ?  No,  says  the  apos- 
tle, "  It  is  God  that  justifieth."  What  is  meant  by  justify- 
ing ?  To  justify  is  explained  for  instance,  in  the  Proverbs, 
where  he  says,  "  He  that  justifieth  the  wicked  and  con- 
demueth  the  just,  doeth  abomination."     In  other  words,  who 


221  CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACKIFICE. 

shall  justify  the  wicked,  pronounce  them  innocent  or  unim- 
peachable who  are  really  criminal?  Well  now,  to  justify 
us  is  to  pronounce  us  just  through  the  justice  of  another, 
who  are  otherwise  criminal;  and  our  justification  lies  not  in 
our  grace  of  holiness,  but  in  God's  act  of  grace ;  not  in  our 
deeds,  but  in  his  deed  of  absolution  and  forgiveness ;  not  in 
my  estimate  of  myself,  but  in  God's  sentence  upon  me. 
Well,  now,  says  the  apostle,  "  Who  shall  lay  any  thing  to 
the  charge  of  God's  elect?"  Not  God,  "it  is  God  that  jus- 
tifieth."  "  Who  is  he  that  condemneth  ?  "  Not  Christ.  "  It 
is  Christ  that  died,  yea  rather,  that  is  risen  again,  who  is 
even  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  who  also  maketh  intercession 
for  us."  And  therefore  he  adds  —  mind  you,  Paul,  a  sin- 
ner, according  to  his  own  confession  the  chiefest  of  sinners, 
whose  early  life  was  employed  in  persecuting  and  proscrib- 
ing and  murdering  the  followers  of  Jesus ;  this  Paul,  by 
grace,  was  brought  into  that  state  that  he  could  say,  "  Who 
shall  separate  us  from  the  love  of  Christ  ?  shall  tribulation, 
or  distress,  or  persecution,  or  famine,  or  nakedness,  or  peril, 
or  the  sword  ?  I  am  j^ersuaded,  that  neither  death,  nor  life, 
nor  angels,  nor  j)rincipalities,  nor  powers,  nor  things  pres- 
ent, nor  things  to  come,  nor  height,  nor  depth,  nor  any  other 
creature,  shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God, 
which  is  in  Christ  Jesus  our  Lord."  What  a  triumphant 
clause !  and  yet  it  is  not  the  language  of  presumption,  it  is 
the  language  of  humble  trust.  Presumption  means  think- 
ing that  God  can  pardon  without  a  sacrilice  —  that  he  can 
be  just  to  forgive  without  an  atonement ;  but  humility  is 
feeling  we  have  nothing  and  deserve  nothing ;  but  feeling 
that  God  is  so  faithful,  so  just,  that  we  can  anticipate  far 
richer  results  than  we  enjoy  in  the  present :  that  nothing 
shall  be  able  to  separate  us  from  the  love  of  God  that  is  in 
Christ  Jesus  our  Lord. 

Now  that  expression,  "  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our 
sins,"  reminds  me  of  the  infinite  variety  of  expressions  that 


CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACRIFICE.  225 

God  uses  to  tell  us  Low  complete  tliis  act  of  forgiveness  is. 
He  is  faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us.  I  do  not  know  any 
one  thought  clothed  in  such  variegated  drapery  as  the 
thought  of  God's  forgiving  sin.  lie  varies  the  pliraseology 
not  to  express  his  meaning,  but  to  interest  and  engage  our 
hearts.  For  instance,  in  one  part  he  calls  it  "  remission  of 
sins."  Man  is  in  bondage,  surrounded  by  dungeon  walls ; 
the  chains  of  his  sins  bind  him  to  the  spot.  God  touches 
his  chains,  they  are  dissolved  by  the  touch,  and  he  has  re- 
mission of  sins,  or  the  loosing  of  his  bonds.  Then  another 
phrase  he  employs  is,  "  not  imputing  our  sins."  They  are 
countless  as  the  sand,  they  are  innumerable  as  the  hairs  on 
our  head  ;  and  yet  he  does  not  impute  them.  Why  ?  Be- 
cause he  imputed  them  to  Christ.  Another  expression  is, 
"  Not  remembered  "  —  "I  will  remember  their  sins  and 
their  iniquities  no  more."  In  the  Levitical  sacrifices  there 
is  a  remembrance  of  sin  made  every  year,  but  by  this  sacri- 
fice there  is  no  remembrance  of  sin  forever ;  as  if  God,  in 
order  to  convince  us  of  the  completeness  of  the  pardon,  had 
said,  that  they  shall  be  expunged  from  his  memory  forever. 
Again,  he  uses  the  expression,  "  Cover  their  sins "  — 
"  whose  sins  thou  hast  covered."  The  Hebrew  word,  hapliar, 
which  means  to  cover,  and  from  which  our  English  word 
"  cover  "  comes,  is  the  word  used  in  the  Old  Testament  for 
the  atonement;  and  the  meaning  of  it  is,  that  just  as  a  man 
covered  with  a  robe  —  an  external  robe  —  has  thus  con- 
cealed from  the  eye  under-robes  that  may  not  be  so  fair  or 
beautiful;  so  a  sinner  —  sinner  in  himself — having  spread 
over  him  the  spotless  robe  of  Christ's  righteousness,  thus  has 
his  sin  covered.  And  the  meaning  of  it  is,  not  that  it  is  a 
material  transaction,  but  that  God  will  deal  with  him  just  as 
if  he  were  spotless  as  the  driven  snow,  unstained,  beautiful, 
and  perfect. 

Another  expression  is,  "  Taking  aAvay  our  sins."     The  Is- 
raelite confessed  his  sins  over  the  head  of  the  scape-goat ; 


226  CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACKIFICE. 

then  the  o:oat  was  dismissed  into  the  desert ;  and  the  sins  of 
the  Israelite,  thus  confessed,  were  typically  transferred  to  the 
goat,  and  never  any  more  heard  of. 

Another  expression  is,  "  Blotting  out."  Just  as  if  your 
sins  were  like  inscriptions  upon  the  sand  of  the  sea-shore, 
washed  out  by  the  first  wave  of  infinite  and  boundless  love. 

Another  expression  is,  "  Casting  behind  his  back."  In  one 
passage,  "  Our  secret  sins  hast  thou  set  in  the  light  of  thy 
countenance,"  —  a  most  awful  exj)ression ;  but  in  order  to 
show  you  the  completeness  of  his  forgiveness,  "  All  our  sins 
he  has  cast  behind  his  back."  And  again,  the  expression 
occurs,  "  cleansing  "  —  "  the  blood  of  Christ,"  that  is,  the 
efficacy  of  his  sacrifice,  "  cleanseth  from  all  sin."  Another 
passage  which  contains  almost  every  epithet  is,  "  Who  is  a 
God  like  unto  thee,  that  pardoneth  iniquity,  that  passeth  by 
the  transgression  of  the  remnant  of  his  heritage,  that  keep- 
eth  not  his  anger  for  ever,  delighteth  in  mercy  ?  He  will 
turn  again,  he  will  have  compassion  upon  us,  he  will  cast  all 
their  sins  into  the  depths  of  the  sea."  Now,  if  meaning  is 
not  conveyed  by  these  expressions  of  the  completeness,  the 
instancy  of  a  sinner's  forgiveness,  then  this  Book  has  no 
meaning  at  all.  But  why  all  this  —  why  all  this  phraseology 
so  varied,  so  cumulative  ?  The  answer  is,  —  It  is  so  difficult 
to  persuade  you  that  God  will  do  it.  As  I  have  often  said, 
it  is  the  simplicity  of  Christianity  that  is  its  stumblingblock. 
It  is  not  a  sacrifice  to  offer,  a  priest  to  sacrifice  it,  penance  to 
do,  payment  to  make  ;  but  it  is  just  to  believe  this  truth,  em- 
bosomed in  the  text  on  which  I  am  preaching  to  you  this 
day ;  and  which  I  have  unfolded,  not  wandered  from.  The 
man  that  can  take  this  text  home  with  him,  and  Avith  his 
heart  feel  it,  and  from  his  heart  confess,  and  with  his  heart 
believe  —  that  man  is  a  true  Christian,  and  the  rest  of  his 
life  hereafter  will  be  irresistible  demonstration  that  he  is  so. 
And  hence  it  is  added  here,  while  God  is  faithful  and  just  to 
forgive  us  our  sins,  he  is  also  to  cleanse  us  from  all  unright- 


CONFESSION    TIIliOUGII    SACRIFICE.  227 

coiisness.  Now  this  is  somctliing  additional.  jMany  persons, 
wlicii  tlicy  hear  the  evangelical  minister  preach,  and  pro- 
nounce that  onr  admission  into  heaven  is  not  because  of  any 
thing  we  may  do,  but  in  spite  of  it  —  when  they  hear  the 
minister  preach  that  our  title  to  glory,  our  admission  into 
heaven,  is  not  in  consequence  of  any  thing  done  by  us,  but 
in  spite  of  every  thing  done  by  us  in  the  past,  they  say, 
"  Why,  if  people  act  up  to  that  minister's  prescriptions,  they 
will  plunge  into  every  sort  of  sin;  they  will  feel  that  sin  is 
no  barrier  to  their  admission  into  heaven."  That  is  what 
you  feel,  I  dare  say,  Avhen  you  look  at  it  from  a  distance ; 
but  you  well  know  that  when  a  man  has  got  this  sense  of 
God's  fatherly  goodness  he  has  received  a  new  life,  and  he 
does  not  want  to  do  what  he  wanted  to  do  before.  This  is 
not  a  theorem  for  man  to  act  upon,  but  it  is  a  life  for  man 
continually  to  live.  Wherever  there  is  the  pardon  of  sin  by 
an  act  of  grace  without,  there  is  the  ceaseless  extinction  of 
sin  by  the  Spirit's  influence  witliin.  Our  pardon  is  a  change 
of  state  ;  our  cleansing  from  all  unrighteousness  is  a  change 
of  character.  Because  we  say  good  works  are  of  no  use  as 
our  title  to  heaven,  we  do  not  say  we  are  not  therefore  to  do 
good  works ;  our  title  to  heaven  is  irrespective  of  them  alto- 
gether, but  our  fitness  for  heaven  is  just  that  character  which 
you  have  —  living  soberly  and  righteously  in  this  present 
world.  We  lost  our  title  to  heaven  in  Paradise ;  Christ  has 
restored  it  in  his  righteousness.  We  defaced  our  image  of 
God  in  Paradise,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  restores  that  image  by 
his  presence.  So  that  a  Christian  forgiven  freely  through 
Christ's  righteousness,  and  accepted  and  justified,  is  day  by 
day  sanctified  —  day  by  day  he  seeks  love  to  guide  him, 
grace  to  influence  him,  the  Holy  Spirit  to  keep  him  from 
fill  ling. 

Having  seen  the  very  substance  and  pith  of  all  that  is 
most  precious  in  the  gospel,  let  me  ask.  Have  you  —  hast 
thou,  ever  confessed  thy  sins,  thy  secret  sins ;  the  sins  of  thy 


228  CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACRIFICE. 

youth,  the  sins  of  thy  riper  years,  the  sins  of  the  solemn 
things,  the  omissions  you  have  made,  the  commissions  you 
have  perpetrated  ?  You  have  confessed  them  in  the  sanc- 
tuary, but  have  you  ever  confessed  them  when  no  mortal  ear 
could  hear  them  at  all  ?  Have  you  ever  been  alone  with 
God  ?  Have  you  ever  felt,  have  you  ever  realized,  being 
alone  with  God  ?  You  must  one  day  be  so ;  you  must  walk 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  alone ;  you  must 
render  up  the  ghost  alone.  Physicians  may  accompany  you 
to  the  brink  of  the  grave  ;  enter  they  cannot.  They  may 
go  with  you  to  the  very  verge  of  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death ;  accompany  you  they  cannot.  Is  it  not  well,  is  it 
not  expediency,  is  it  not  duty,  —  oh,  no !  is  it  not  rather  pre- 
cious privilege  in  this  life,  to  be  occasionally  alone  with  God  ? 
Do  not  let  every  man  say,  "  This  is  meant  for  a  whole  audi- 
ence ; "  it  is  meant  as  much  for  you  A,  for  you  B,  for  you  C, 
as  if  you  and  I  were  the  only  two  speaking  together  this  day. 
What  one  so  grieves  is,  that  persons  treat  an  appeal  to  their 
consciences  as  porters  treat  a  heavy  load  —  when  six  carry 
it,  it  is  very  light  upon  each  shoulder.  And  you  think,  be- 
cause there  are  some  seventeen  hundred  listening  to  me, 
therefore  a  very  small  and  infinitesimal  quantity  of  it  ex- 
tends to  you.  But  what  I  say  to  all  I  say  to  each,  as  if  that 
individual  were  the  only  one  present.  I  ask,  —  Have  I  ever 
been  alone  with  God  ?  Have  I  confessed  to  him  my  secret 
sins  —  sins  the  world  does  not  know,  sins  that  may  be  for- 
given, but  that  cannot  be  forgotten  ?  My  dear  friends,  if  it 
has  never  been  so,  I  will  not  pronounce  on  such  —  that  is 
not  my  function ;  but  I  will  say  that  he  has  great  reason  to 
suspect  if  he  be  a  Christian  at  all.  Pie  may  be  an  amiable 
man  —  a  gentle,  quiet,  charitable,  generous  man  ;  and  all  this 
he  ought  to  be.  Surely,  surely,  all  this  you  ought  to  be. 
But  there  is  something  more  than  that;  there  is  relationship 
to  a  God  we  need  restored  ;  there  is  restoration  to  an  image 
we  have  lost ;  there  is  reinstatement  in  a  favor  we  have  for- 


CONFESSION    THROUGH    SACRIFICE.  229 

felted  :  have  we  found  tliat  ?  Our  sun  is  setting  behind  the 
western  hills :  will  he  rise  to  us  more  beautiful  in  the  ever- 
lasting east  ?  The  tide  is  ebbing :  if  we  miss  it,  our  voyage 
to  the  everlasting  haven  may  be  lost  for  ever.  Is  our  trust 
on  the  Rock  of  Ages  ?  Is  our  confidence  in  God's  fiuthful- 
ncss  and  justice  to  forgive  us  our  sins  —  suppose  death  were 
now  to  overtake  you  (and  I  am  not  supposing  any  thing  very 
extraordinary)  what  would  you  say,  what  could  you  say? 
Oh !  ^vould  you  be  constrained  to  say,  "  I  heard  truths  that 
would  make  the  lost  in  misery  leap  for  ecstasy,  that  angels 
listen  to,  and  are  startled  by  their  music ;  and  I  heard  them, 
and  went,  one  to  his  farm  and  another  to  his  mechandise ; 
and  I  have  not  rejected  —  for  I  never  was  bold  enough  to 
do  that  —  but  I  have  neglected  the  great  salvation!" 

But  how  shall  we  escape,  if  we,  not  reject,  but  neglect,  so 
great  salvation  ? 

20 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE    SACRIFICE    OF    SWEET-SMELLING    SAVOR. 

"And  walk  in  love,  as  Christ  also  hatli  loved  us,  and  hath  given  himself 
for  ns  an  offering  and  a  sacrifice  to  God  for  a  sweet-smelling  savor."  — 
Ephesiaxs  v.  2. 

TiiK  words  of  St.  Paul,  in  liis  Epistle  to  the  Epbesians, 
"-  And  walk  in  love,  as  Christ  also  hath  loved  us,  and  hath 
given  himself  for  us  an  offering  and  a  sacrifice  to  God,  for  a 
sweet-smelling  savor,"  best  illustrate  two  or  three  expres- 
sions almost  similar  in  word  which  have  occurred  in  the  first 
three  chapters  of  the  Book  of  Leviticus.  In  the  course  of 
these  three  chapters  we  have  read  very  frequently  the  ex- 
j)ression,  "  Sweet  savor  unto  the  Lord,"  "  A  savor  of  a 
sweet  smell,"  or  "  A  sweet-smelling  savor  unto  God."  Thus 
in  the  first  chapter,  at  the  ninth  verse :  "  A  burnt  sacrifice, 
an  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savor  unto  the  Lord." 
Thus  again,  in  the  seventeenth  verse :  "  It  is  a  burnt  sacri- 
fice, an  offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savor  unto  the 
Lord."  In  the  second  chapter,  at  the  ninth  verse :  "  It  is  an 
offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savor  unto  the  Lord  ; " 
and  again,  at  the  fifth  verse  of  the  third  chapter :  "  It  is  an 
offering  made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savor  unto  the  Lord." 
You  observe  that  almost  at  the  close  of  every  offering,  and 
as  the  consequence  of  the  presentation  of  every  victim,  if 
acceptable  to  God,  it  is  presented  under  the  exj^ressive  and 
the  beautiful  figure  of  a  sacrifice,  fragrant  of  a  sweet  smell, 
acceptable  to  Him  by  whose  order  it  has  been  oflfered,  and 

(230) 


THE    SACRIFICE    OF    SWEET-SMELLING    SAVOR.        231 

in  order  to  propitiate  or  draw  down  whose  mercy  it  lias 
been  presented  by  the  offerer. 

Now,  the  words  of  Paul,  that  I  have  just  read  in  his 
Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  are  the  echo  of  the  words  of 
Moses,  in  the  first  three  chapters  of  Leviticus :  in  fact,  the 
verse  I  have  given  is  an  epitome,  or  summary  in  brief  of 
the  meaning,  the  end,  and  the  object  of  the  many  sacri- 
fices, presented  by  many  priests,  which  could  never  take  away 
sin,  now  summed  up,  rejiresented,  and  finished  in  that  one 
Sacrifice  offered  once  for  all  upon  the  cross,  through  which 
we  have  access  to  God,  and  by  which  we  are  sanctified. 

The  apostle  then  speaks  of  Christ  himself,  as  the  Giver, 
who  gave  himself;  he  then  speaks  for  what  he  gave  him- 
self; he  then  describes  that  gift  under  the  figure  of  an  offer- 
ing and  a  sacrifice ;  and  then  he  describes  its  acceptableness 
to  God  under  the  figure  of  "  a  sweet-smelling  savor  unto 
God." 

AVe  have  first  of  all,  then,  in  this  resume  of  the  end  and 
object  of  all  the  sacrifices  of  Levi,  the  Giver  who  gave 
himself  Who  was  he  ?  First,  he  was  man.  We  assert, 
just  as  strongly  as  the  Socinian  can  assert,  that  Jesus  Avas 
man.  It  is  the  glory  of  the  Gospel  that  he  was  so.  The 
object  of  the  evangelists  is  not  to  prove  that  he  was  God ; 
every  Jew  believed  that  the  Messiah  was  God ;  but  the 
difficulty  that  the  Jews  felt  was,  —  had  he  become  man? 
which  the  Jew  constantly  and  consistently  denied.  Kow, 
we  assert  that  Jesus  was  man,  in  all  points  as  we  are ;  —  in 
liis  heart  the  echo  of  our  wrongs ;  in  his  nature  sympathy 
with  our  sorrows  and  our  sufferings  that  are  deepest ;  in  all 
points  touched  and  tempted  like  as  Ave  are:  but  oidy  with- 
out sin,  which  is  no  part  of  humanity.  Sin  is  no  part  of 
me.  When  God  made  me,  he  did  not  make  sin  in  me ;  sin 
was  no  part  of  man  when  God  pronounced  him  in  Eden  to 
be  very  good.  So  Christ  Avas  perfect  man.  And,  in  the 
next  place,  he  Avas  a  royal  man.     He  Avas  descended  of  a 


232  THE    SACRIFICE    OF 

royal,  but  a  cllscrowned  family ;  sunk  by  poverty,  affliction, 
obscurity.  And  he  was  royal  in  that  he  was  a  king.  "  Art 
thou  a  king  ?  "  "  Thou  sayest,"  —  that  is,  I  am.  All  the 
prerogatives  of  royalty  were,  and  are,  his. 

But  whilst  he  was  man  —  a  sinless  man,  and  a  royal 
man  —  he  that  gave  himself  was  also  God.  I  cannot  con- 
sent to  weed  out  the  texts  that  say  Christ  was  God,  and 
fling  them  away,  and  fasten  on  the  texts  that  say  he  was 
man,  and  strain  and  stretch  them  to  the  utmost.  I  must 
read  the  Bible  just  as  God  has  inspired  it ;  and  if  I  read 
upon  the  one  page,  "  The  Word  was  made  flesh,"  —  "  Jesus 
is  a  man  of  sorrows ; "  why  should  I  weed  out  of  the  next 
page,  "  By  him  all  things  were  made ;  and  without  him  was 
not  any  thing  made  that  was  made."  —  "  And  though  in  the 
form  of  God,  and  thinking  it  no  robbery  to  be  equal  with 
God,  he  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant  ?  "  How  can 
the  Socinian  say  the  forin  of  God  is  not  the  same  as  God  ? 
Then,  I  must  add,  the  form  of  a  servant  is  not  the  same  as 
a  servant.  But  if  the  taking  upon  him  the  form  of  a  ser- 
vant, means  that  he  really  became  a  servant;  so,  in  the 
form  of  God,  and  thinking  it  no  robbery  to  be  equal  with 
God,  means  that  he  was  God  over  all,  blessed  for  evermore. 
But  I  need  no  text  to  demonstrate  that  Christ  was  God,  ex- 
cept the  simple  prediction,  that  he  is  to  be  the  Judge  of  all 
flesh.  If  God  be  not  upon  the  judgment-seat,  where  can  he 
be?  If  there  be  a  place  where  the  presence  of  Deity  is 
demanded,  it  is  that  place  where  all  hearts  will  be  laid 
bare — where  all  destinies  will  be  adjusted  —  where  the 
mighty  group  will  consist  of  the  milhons  and  millions  of  the 
world  from  the  beginning.  If  man  be  capable  of  searching 
all  hearts,  fixing  all  destinies,  and,  with  perfect  accuracy, 
dealing  with  each  according  to  what  he  is,  man  cannot  be 
what  he  is  defined  to  be  in  the  Bible  —  the  frail,  the  imper- 
fect, the  weak,  the  limited  creature,  that  our  own  expe- 
rience also  attests  him  to  be.     And,  at  all  events,  if  Christ 


SWEET-SMELLING    SAVOR.  233 

be  not  God,  the  inhabitants  of  heaven  must  be  guilty  of 
blasphemy.  I  open  the  Apocalypse  ;  I  gaze  in  at  that  door 
which  John  saw  opened  in  heaven  ;  I  listen  to  the  anthems 
tliat  arc  there.  No  Socinian  can  be  there  ;  it  is  impossible 
he  could  join  in  the  hymns  of  heaven.  How  could  a  So- 
cinian say,  "  Unto  him  that  loved  me  and  washed  me  from 
my  sins  in  his  own  blood,  unto  him  be  gloiy  and  dominion 
forever  and  ever  ?  "  How  could  a  Unitarian  say,  "  Wor- 
thy is  the  Lamb  that  was  slain  to  receive  praise,  and  thanks- 
giving, and  glory,  and  honor !  "  —  "  Thou  hast  redeemed  us 
by  thy  blood  out  of  every  kindred,  and  every  nation,  and 
every  tongue,  and  w^e  shall  reign  with  thee  ?  "  That  is  the 
language  of  adoration,  of  praise,  of  prayer. 

Thus,  then,  the  Being  who  gave  himself  was  God  —  first 
man,  a  sinless  man,  a  royal,  though  a  discrowned  man ;  and 
lastly  God. 

Now,  what  did  he  give  ?  He  gave  himself,  Mark  the 
language  —  gave^  not  was  induced  to  give,  or  permitted  to  be 
given,  or  had  exacted  from  him  —  he  gave  freely,  gener- 
ously, as  the  expression  oi  irrepressible  love,  in  the  exercise 
of  boundless  benevolence :  he  freely  gave.  And  he  gave  — 
what  ?  Not  an  angel ;  the  highest  hierarcli  about  the  throne 
has  no  more  holy  light  than  he  needs  for  himself.  He  has 
nothing  to  spare  for  me.  Every  creature  is  made  with  suffi- 
cient for  its  own  orbit,  and  for  the  continuance  of  its  own 
beautiful  and  holy  being;  but  it  has  nothing  to  spare  for 
others.  And  he  did  not  give  any  saint.  The  virgins  that 
were  wise  had  oil  in  their  own  lamps;  they  had  none  to 
spare  for  others.  The  highest  Christian  in  this  assembly 
has  grace ;  he  has  none  to  spare  for  another.  He  can  tell 
you  where  he  got  his  supply  —  where  you  are  welcome  to 
go  also  for  supply  ;  but  he  can  spare  nothing,  nor  give  ought 
of  what  God  has  given  him  for  himself.  Nor  did  he  give 
riches.  INIoney,  that  has  the  most  rapid  currency  on  earth, 
has  no  currency  in  heaven  ;  it  has  not  the  impress  and  the 
20* 


234  THE    SACRIFICE    OF 

superscription  of  Him  who  reigns  supreme  there.  "  Ye  are 
not  redeemed  with  gold  or  silver,  or  any  such  corruptible 
tiling."  Nor,  in  the  last  place,  did  he  give  the  blood  of  bulls 
and  of  goats,  which  were  shadows  of  that  which  should  be. 
Tliese,  I  say,  so  frequently  alluded  to  in  Leviticus,  were  the 
dim  footprints  of  his  advent;  leading  the  believer  to  stretch 
his  hopes  onward  to  the  cross,  and  to  rely  on  and  glorify 
him.  If  these  sacrifices  could  have  atoned  for  sin,  having 
done  their  work,  they  would  have  ceased  to  be  offered.  But 
the  fact,  says  the  apostle,  that  they  were  offered  year  by 
year,  was  proof  that  they  never  could  make  the  comers 
thereunto  perfect.  He  therefore  gave,  not  the  blood  of  bulls 
and  of  innocent  goats,  but  something  more  precious  than  all 
these.  He  gave  himself.  He  was  man,  that  he  might  be 
capable  of  suffering  what  we  had  drawn  down  upon  our- 
selves ;  he  was  God,  that  he  might  be  able  to  give  virtue  to 
all  those  sufferings  that  should  make  them,  not  the  sufferings 
of  a  man,  but  the  sufferings  of  an  atoning  and  an  expiatory 
victim.  He  gave  himself.  He  gave  his  body  to  sorrow  and 
the  sword  ;  he  gave  his  soul  to  sorrow,  but  not  to  the  sword  ; 
he  gave  his  deity  neither  to  sorrow  nor*to  the  sword,  but  to 
communicate  virtue,  efficacy,  all  that  was  needed  to  render 
his  sufferings  not  those  of  a  creature  enduring  chastisement 
from  a  father,  nor  of  a  criminal  enduring  punishment  from  a 
judge ;  but  of  a  victim,  making  expiation  for  the  sins  of  all 
that  believe. 

And  he  gave  himself  alone.  There  was  no  partner  in  his 
agony.  When  Mary  obtruded  herself  upon  him,  he  re- 
pelled her  firmly,  but  gently.  And  as  there  was  no  partner 
in  his  agony,  as  he  trod  the  wine-press  alone,  and  of  the 
people  there  was  none  with  him,  as  there  Is  no  salvation  in 
any  other  name  given  among  men,  so  there  will  be  no  sharer 
in  his  glory.  He  endured  the  cross ;  he  must  wear  exclu- 
sively the  crown :  he  bore  all  the  penalty,  and  exhausted  It ; 
he  must  receive  all  the  glory  of  the  ransom  of  his  precious 
blood  —  he  crave  himself  alone. 


SAVEET-SMELLING    SAVOR.  235 

And  to  whom  did  he  give  himself?  lie  gave  himself 
to  God,  says  the  apostle,  in  the  text.  Against  God  we  had 
sinned  ;  to  God  was  the  reparation  due.  He  was  the  party 
offended;  the  great  obstruction  was  between  him  and  us. 
Till  he  was  satisfied,  sinners,  by  the  very  nature  of  the 
thing,  never  could  be  saved.  Whilst  he  gave  himself  to  God, 
says  the  apostle,  he  gave  himself  to  God  for  us.  Now  let  any- 
body read  the  language  of  Leviticus,  and  see  what  is  said 
of  the  different  sacrifices,  offerings,  holocausts  ;  and  then  read 
what  is  said  of  Christ's  death,  and  see  the  very  same  lan- 
guage applied  to  Christ's  death  that  was  applied  to  the 
offerings,  the  victims,  and  the  sacrifices  of  Levi ;  and  then 
say,  is  it  possible  to  come  to  any  other  conclusion  than  this 
—  that  Christ  lived  and  died  for  us,  not  an  example  how 
purely  we  should  live,  nor  a  precedent  how  magnanimously 
Ave  should  die,  but  an  atonement,  a  substitute,  a  vicarious 
offering,  a  sacrifice  for  our  sins,  that  they  might  be  forgiven, 
and  that  the  guilty  might  be  gloriously  saved  ? 

He  gave  himself,  first,  it  says  in  our  text,  an  offering  for 
us  —  an  offering  and  a  sacrifice.  His  whole  life  was  an 
offering,  his  M'hole  death  was  a  sacrifice.  I  say  his  whole 
life  was  an  offering.  He  opened  his  ear  to  every  command 
of  God,  and  did  it.  He  did  for  us  creatures  in  his  life  all 
that  we  ought  to  do.  His  obedience,  it  is  true,  was  exem- 
plary, just  as  the  exactions  of  the  law  are  obligatory;  but 
this  is  the  emphatic  distinction  of  his  obedience  —  that  he 
obeyed  as  our  representative  and  substitute,  not  as  a  model 
for  us  to  imitate,  but  as  an  offering  for  us  to  plead ;  not  as 
an  example  for  us  to  follow  only,  but  as  a  righteousness  for 
us  to  put  on.  He  did  what  as  creatures  we  had  not  done ; 
he  obeyed  a  law  which,  as  creatures,  we  could  not  obey ; 
and  thus  his  whole  beautiful  and  spotless  life  was  a  holy  and 
a  spotless  offering  to  God  of  absolute,  unspent,  and  unwaver- 
ing obedience  ;  not  for  me  to  imitate  merely,  l)ut  for  me  to 
put  on,  to  be  clothed  in,  to  plead  as  my  right  and  my  title 


236  THE    SACRIFICE    OF 

to  heaven,  saying  to  God  at  the  judgment-seat,  "I  have 
obeyed  that  law  in  Christ  my  Head  and  Representative ; 
and  therefore  I  am  entitled  to  all  the  promises  and  the  bless- 
ings it  contains." 

But  while  he  lived  as  an  offering,  it  is  added  he  died  also 
as  a  sacrifice.  He  gave  himself,  says  the  apostle,  an  offering 
and  a  sacrifice.  His  tears  of  angui^h,  his  agony  of  soul,  his 
painful  death,  closed  by  his  last  cry,  "  It  is  finished  !  "  was 
the  complete  holocaust,  the  complete  burnt  sacrifice  made 
upon  the  cross  for  us  and  for  our  sins.  And  just  mark  how 
complete  this  character  is.  As  creatures  we  owed  obedience 
to  the  law  of  our  Creator ;  Christ  gave  it  for  us.  As  sinners 
we  had  incurred  the  curse  of  God  our  Judge ;  Christ  bore 
that  curse  for  us.  So  that  when  I  am  asked,  why  should 
not  the  curse  fall  upon  me,  with  its  ceaseless  and  corroding 
pressure  ?  I  answer.  My  Head,  my  Representative,  my  Sub- 
stitute, has  borne  it,  and  exhausted  it  for  me.  Why  should 
I  be  admitted  into  heaven,  not  having  obeyed  the  law  ?  My 
answer  is,  My  Head,  my  Representative,  accepted  by  God 
for  me  in  my  stead,  has  obeyed  the  law  for  me.  Therefore, 
justified  by  his  righteousness,  forgiven  by  his  sacrifice,  there 
is  no  sin  on  me,  while  there  are  many  sins  in  me ;  and  I  am 
clothed  with  spotless  righteousness ;  and  may  be  presented 
in  him,  and  through  him,  and  by  liis  merits,  part  and  parcel 
of  his  glorious  church,  without  spot  or  blemish,  or  any  such 
thing.     How  complete  is  a  sinner  in  Christ  the  Saviour ! 

Let  us  notice  in  the  next  place,  that  this  sacrifice  and 
offering  is  described  as  a  sweet-smelling  savor ;  and  for  this 
I  have  especially  selected  the  text.  What  is  meant  by  this  ? 
We  find  it  explained  in  the  Book  of  Genesis,  where  Noah, 
after  he  came  forth  from  the  ark,  offered  up  a  sacrifice,  a 
burnt-offering;  and  the  Lord  smelled  a  sweet  savor;  and 
the  Lord  said,  I  will  not  again  curse  the  ground  for  man's 
sake.  W*e  have  the  very  same  expression  explained, 
rather  than  used,  in  Philippians  iv.  18,  where  the  apostle 


SWEET-SMELLING    SAVOR.  237 

says,  "  But  I  have  all  and  abound  ;  I  am  full,  having  re- 
ceived of  Epaphroditus  the  things  which  were  sent  from 
you,  an  odor  of  a  sweet  smell,  a  sacrifice  acceptable,  well 
pleasing  "  —  that  is  the  explanation  —  "  to  God."  Now, 
what  was  it  in  Christ  that  was  thus  well  pleasing  or  accept- 
able to  God?  It  was  not,  as  the  Unitarian  would  say,  his 
holy  and  spotless  obedience,  his  pure  life,  only  that  was  thus 
acceptable ;  it  was  no  doubt ;  but  the  apostle  says,  the  thing 
that  was  acceptable  to  God — that  was  a  sweet-smelling  savor, 
that  rose  to  heaven  like  an  ascending  cloud  of  delicious  fra- 
grance, was  his  sacrifice  and  his  offering.  It  was  not  aii  ex- 
ample of  a  sweet-smelling  savor,  but  a  sacrifice  and  an  offering 
of  a  sweet-smelling  savor.  In  other  words,  what  God  re- 
gards specially  as  acceptable  to  him,  is  the  atoning  death, 
the  meritorious  righteousness  of  Christ,  our  substitute,  our 
sacrifice,  and  our  salvation.  But,  you  ask,  Why  should  this 
be  specially  pleasing  and  acceptable  to  God  ?  Has  God  any 
j)leasure  in  suffering  ?  We  are  told  he  has  no  pleasure  in 
the  death  of  a  sinner ;  how  much  less  could  he  have  had 
pleasure  in  the  death,  the  agony,  the  suffering  of  the  spotless, 
the  holy,  the  blameless.  Son  of  God  ?  He  could  have  had 
no  pleasure  in  this.  Then  what  was  it  that  made  these  suf- 
ferings so  fragrant  before  God?  Christ  explains  it.  He 
says  that  what  made  him  endure  the  cross  with  such  delight, 
was  the  joy  set  before  him.  Isaiah  thus  explains  the  joy  set 
before  him,  "  He  shall  see  of  the  travail  of  his  soul,"  —  that 
is,  the  result  of  it,  — "  and  he  shall^be  satisfied."  And, 
therefore,  just  as  Christ  bore  the  cross  for  the  sake  of  the 
magnificent  results  it  should  achieve,  so  God  looked  at  his 
sufferings,  and  saw  through  them  those  glorious  harvests  of 
which  angels  shall  be  the  reapers,  and  on  which  God  should 
look  Avith  infinite  satisfaction,  and  unspeakable  delight. 

But  Vv'hat  are  some  of  the  results  accomplished  by  this 
offering  and  sacrifice  that  make  it  a  sweet-smelling  savor, 
acceptable  to  God?     I  answer,  first,  the  law  of  God  is  vin- 


238  THE    SACRIFICE    OF 

dicaled  in  the  death  of  Christ,  and  covered  with  a  richer 
kistre  than  it  ever  could  have  been  covered  with  if  Adam 
and  Eve  had  remained'  in  their  first  innocence,  and  Eden  re- 
tained amarantliine  verdure  and  beauty.  The  law  set  in  the 
innocence  of  first  obedience  would  have  been  beautiful ;  but 
the  law  in  the  setting  of  Christ's  obedience  for  ns  is  more 
lustrous  and  splendid  stilh  It  is  more  seen  to  be  holy,  just, 
faithful,  indestructible,  because,  God  would  rather  than  that 
one  jot  or  tittle  should  pass  from  his  law,  that  the  whole  of 
humanity  should  perish,  or  his  own  Son  its  substitute,  should 
suffer  in  its  stead. 

And,  in  the  second  place,  it  is  a  sweet-smelling  savor  to 
God,  inasmuch  as  God's  children  are  all  saved  through  it. 
I  cannot  conceive  the  universe  to  have  any  order,  God's  law 
to  have  any  fixity,  God  himself  to  be  a  holy  God,  if  he  ad- 
mits the  guilty  and  the  innocent,  the  fallen  and  the  unfallen, 
equally  to  the  enjoyment,  or  relatively  to  the  enjoyment,  of 
the  glories  of  the  blessed.  It  was  impossible  that  man  could 
be  saved  by  nature  by  the  law  as  he  is,  without  some  inter- 
position that  should  satisfy  all  demands,  meet  every  necessity, 
make  provision  for  every  requirement,  and  enable  God,  if  I 
may  use  the  expression,  to  receive  the  guilty  as  if  the  guilty 
had  never  fallen.  Now  in  Christ's  death  sin  is  forgiven,  and 
the  sinner  is  saved,  while  the  law  is  upheld,  and  God  is  glo- 
rified. And  the  sin,  while  forgiven  to  the  sinner,  is  by  the 
same  process  made  more  hateful  to  the  sinner ;  so  that  there 
is  not  only  pardon  for  the  past,  but  in  the  same  process  by 
which  the  pardon  is  conveyed,  there  is  a  guarantee  that  there 
shall  be  greater,  richer,  nobler  conformity  to  God's  law  in  all 
the  future. 

And  in  the  next  place,  the  sacrifice  was  a  sweet-smelling 
savor  to  God,  inasmuch  as  it  gives  glory  to  himself.  You 
see  much  of  God  in  creation,  and  if  it  had  never  been  stained, 
creation's  bright  mirror  had  reflected  vastly  more  of  God's 
goodness  than  it  now  does ;  we  see  much  of  God  in  the  law, 


SWEET-SMELLING    SAVOK.  239 

—  "  Thou  slialt,  and  thou  shalt  not ; "  and  its  exactions,  which 
extend  not  to  words  and  deeds,  but  to  thoughts  and  imagina- 
tions :  but  we  see  vastly  more  of  God  —  of  his  holiness,  of 
his  justice,  of  his  truth,  and  of  his  love  in  the  forgiveness  of 
a  sinner,  through  Christ  tlie  sacrifice,  tlian  we  ever  could 
have  seen  if  Calvary  had  never  been,  and  Christ  had  never 
suffered.  And  I  doubt  not  that  what  has  been  transacted 
upon  this  earth  is  not  for  this  earth  alone.  This  earth  is  the 
mirror  into  which  all  the  orbs  of  the  universe,  circling  it  as 
in  a  splendid  zone,  continually  gaze  to  learn  how  holy  God 
is  —  that  rather  than  that  his  law  should  be  broken  his  Son 
should  suffer  to  see  how  just  God  is,  and,  above  all,  how  lov- 
ing God  is  ;  that  he  so  loved  the  guilty  in  their  ruins,  that 
he  would  do  any  thing  short  of  the  sacrifice  of  his  law  to 
save  them  ;  "  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  whosoever 
believeth  on  him  might  never  perish,  but  have  eternal  life." 
The  chapters  of  this  world's  history  will  be  read  for  millions 
and  millions  of  years  to  come.  I  have  no  doubt  that  this 
earth  is  the  most  wonderful  phenomenon  in  time  or  in  eter- 
nity. I  have  no  doubt  that  this  world,  with  all  that  has 
taken  place  upon  it,  is  a  spectacle  that  angels  and  unfallen 
worlds  will  never  weary  in  gazing  at.  It  is  God's  great  les- 
son book  for  all  the  universe  beside ;  and  as  orb  after  orb, 
and  race  after  race,  hear  of  its  wondrous  tidings,  they  will 
join  with  the  redeemed  that  are  around  the  throne  in  new 
bursts  of  song,  in  new  anthems  to  Him  that  loved  us,  and 
washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  and  hath  made  us 
kings  and  priests  unto  our  God. 

Let  me  notice,  in  the  next  place,  that  it  was  this  perfume 
that  made  the  offerings  of  Levi  at  all  tolerable  to  God  and 

I  to  man.  I  can  conceive  nothing  in  itself  more  offensive  than 
the  ancient  temple  or  tabernacle ;  it  was  almost  a  sort  of 
slaughter-house ;  the  constant  bleeding  of  slain  lambs  and 
sheep,  and  bullocks,  was  a  most  offensive,  painful,  undesirable 


240        THE    SACRIFICE    OF    SWEET-SMELLING    SAVOR. 

this  ofFering  that  was  to  be  in  the  fulness  of  the  time  that 
mingled  with  the  smoke  of  Levi's  sacrilices,  and  made  them 
acceptable  before  God.  Take  away  Christianity  from  Le- 
viticus, and  Leviticus  would  only  be  fit  for  the  gods  of  the 
Pantheon ;  but  let  the  light  of  the  evangelist  fall  upon  the 
face  of  Levi — let  the  offering  of  Christ  be  seen  in  their 
burnt-offerings  —  let  this  perfume  be  smelt  in  their  ascend- 
ing smoke  —  let  the  shadow  of  Jesus  be  seen  upon  the  walls 
of  the  ancient  sanctuary,  —  and  what  in  itself  Avas  so  offen- 
sive to  flesh  and  blood  becomes  beautiful,  and  holy,  and  fra- 
grant, and  acceptable  to  God. 

And,  lastly,  it  is  this  sweet-smelling  savor  of  Christ's  sac- 
rifice, and  the  advocacy  that  follows  it,  that  render  all  that 
we  think,  all  that  we  do,  our  best  and  our  holiest  acts,  ac- 
ceptable to  God.  You  have  it  fully  explained  in  that  very 
beautiful  passage  in  the  Apocalypse,  where  we  read  that  an 
angel,  namely,  Christ,  stood  at  the  altar  of  incense,  where 
the  high-priest  stood,  having  a  golden  censer,  which  the  high- 
priest  alone  had ;  and  there  was  given  to  him  much  incense, 
the  sweet-smelling  savor  of  his  own  sacrifice,  that  he  should 
offer  the  incense  with  the  prayers  of  all  saints,  to  give  per- 
fume, and  efficacy,  and  acceptance  to  those  prayers,  upon 
the  golden  altar  which  was  before  the  throne ;  that  our  pray- 
ers, and  our  praises,  and  our  acts,  and  our  alms,  may  be  thus 
acceptable  to  God,  not  in  themselves,  but  because  put  into 
the  golden  censer,  mingled  with  the  ascending  perfume, 
which,  like  a  sweet-smelling  savor,  rises  to  God,  ever  an  ac- 
ceptable sacrifice. 


CHAPTER    IV. 


OUR   ADVOCATE. 


'■  My  little  children,  these  things  wi-ite  I  unto  you,  that  ye  sin  not.  And  if 
any  man  sin,  we  have  an  advocate  with  the  Father,  Jesus  Christ  the 
righteous ;  and  he  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins ;  and  not  for  ours  only, 
but  also  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."  —  1  John  ii.  1. 

You  will  easily  perceive  that  the  text  I  have  selected  al- 
ludes almost  in  word  to  the  sins  of  ignorance  of  which  we 
have  been  reading  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  the  Book  of  Le- 
viticus. The  provision,  as  I  explained,  in  that  chapter,  is 
for  sins  committed  in  ignorance ;  the  provision  in  the  text  I 
have  quoted  is,  "  If  any  man  sin  "  —  whether  he  know  it  or 
not ;  be  it  a  sin  of  ignorance,  or  a  sin  of  wilfulness  — "  we 
have  an  advocate  with  the  Father,"  who  is,  what  the  sacri- 
fice in  Leviticus  was  typically  —  "the  propitiation,"  the 
atonement  "  for  our  sins ;  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  also  for 
the  sins  of  the  whole  world." 

I  know  nothing  so  satisfactory  to  the  Christian,  or  so  pre- 
cious, as  the  truths  enunciated  by  the  Evangelist  John.  And 
whether  we  take  his  beautiful  gospel  called  "  the  Gospel  of 
the  Father,"  because  it  is  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
brotherhood  of  believers  that  that  personation  of  love  mostly 
dwells  on  —  or,  whether  we  take  his  Three  Epistles  —  one 
general,  and  the  other  special,  to  an  Elect  Lady  —  we  find 
in  all  these  precious  truths  which  make  miserable  hearts 
happy,  lead  sinful  souls  to  the  knowledge  of  forgiveness,  and 
the  victims  of  despair  to  be  the  inheritors  of  a  blessed  hope 

21  (211) 


242  OUR    ADVOCATE. 

beyond  the  sky.  How  precious  the  sentiment  in  the  first 
chapter  here  —  "  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son,"  —  not 
once  cleansed,  and  has  now  lost  its  efficacy,  but  cleanseth  — ■ 
the  present  tense  —  in  1854  just  as  fully  as  1800  years  ago! 
And  it  cleanseth,  not  from  some  sins ;  not  from  trivial  ones, 
or  what  are  called  venial  ones ;  but  from  all  sin.  What  a 
truth  to  live  with !  What  a  hope  to  die  in  !  Not  the  literal 
blood  —  as  it  was  literal  in  the  case  of  the  slain  bullock  — 
but  the  precious  efficacy  of  it.  Christ  is  sacrificed  for  us,  an 
offering  and  a  sacrifice  of  a  sweet-smelling  savor ;  meaning 
that  the  sacrifice  burned  upon  the  altar  is  thus  presented 
amid  incense  in  the  holy  of  holies,  and,  as  the  ceaseless  per- 
fume of  that  deed  that  was  done  on  Calvary  1800  years  ago, 
it  rises  to  heaven  like  aromatic  incense,  and  spreads  to  the 
skies,  exhilarating  to  all  that  are  there,  and  acceptable  like 
a  sweet  savor  of  perfume  before  the  Most  High. 

"  If  we  say  that  we  have  no  sin  we  deceive  ourselves." 
There  is  no  perfection  upon  earth ;  we  cannot  have  on  earth 
the  innocence  that  Adam  had  —  it  is  gone  ;  we  cannot  have 
on  earth  the  perfection  that  saints  in  glory  have  —  it  is  not 
come.  Our  condition  upon  earth  is  a  law  in  our  members 
Avarring  against  the  law  of  our  spirit ;  the  ascendancy  ob- 
tained through  struggle ;  imperfection  upon  earth ;  the 
Christian  life,  like  the  April  da,y,  sunshine  and  showers  in 
succession,  cloud  and  brightness  alternating,  but  ending  at 
length  in  a  bright  sky  that  never  shall  be  clouded.  If  any 
man  say,  "  I  have  no  sin,"  that  man  is  either  trying  to  de- 
ceive me,  or  he  deceives  himself.  Then  what  does  he  say? 
"  If  we  say  we  have  no  sin  we  deceive  ourselves,  and  the 
truth  is  not  in  us  ;  but "  —  beautiful  addition !  —  "if  we 
confess  our  sins,"  —  not  to  the  priest,  because  we  have  not 
sinned  against  him ;  but  to  God,  of  whom  he  is  speaking,  — 
"  if  we  confess  our  sins,  God  is  "  —  not  merciful ;  that  you 
could  easily  suppose  —  but  he  is  faithful  to  his  promise  to 
forgive  —  "  lie  is  faithful  and  just."     God  is  just  while  justi- 


OUR    ADVOCATE.  243 

fyiiig  tlie  believer.  IIow  beautiful,  that  the  two  attributes 
of  God  that  human  nature  would  quote  against  forgiveness, 
as  it  imagines,  the  apostle  quotes  as  the  very  two  that  seal, 
and  sanction,  and  proclaim  our  complete  forgiveness  —  ''  lie 
is  faithfid  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins  !  "  And  then  again, 
lest  poor  human  nature  should  forget  this  precious  resource, 
he  repeats,  "If  any  man  sin"  —  whether  the  high-j^riest,  or 
the  ruler  of  the  people,  or  one  of  the  common  people,  or 
one  of  the  congregation  —  "  if  any  man  sin,"  —  whatever 
he  be,  whatever  his  age,  his  position,  or  rank  —  "if  any 
man  sin,  we  have  "  —  we  have,  not  hope  for  —  "  an  advo- 
cate with  the  Father ;  and  he  is  the  propitiation  for  our 
sins ;  and  not  for  ours  only,"  but  it  is  available  to  all  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  for  all  that  will  accept  it. 

Thus,  we  see  how  much  of  the  Gospel  is  in  this  beautiful 
epistle,  even  on  its  very  preface.  He  begins  the  second 
chapter  with  this  remark,  "  My  little  children."  When  John 
wrote  this  epistle,  he  was  very  nearly  ninety  years  of  age  ; 
the  Book  of  Revelation  was  written  in  Patmos  when  he  was 
nearly  a  hundred ;  but  he  was  at  least  ninety  when  he  wrote 
this  epistle.  Pause  to  imagine,  that  beautiful  grey  hair, 
resplendent  with  the  first  beams  of  the  approaching  glory ; 
and  think  of  that  venerable  saint,  ripe  in  grace,  and  conse- 
crated, not  otherwise,  by  years,  addressing  believers  as  his 
"little  children,"  —  his  family,  his  flock  —  and  saying,  "I 
Avrite  unto  you,"  not  that  you  may  reverence  me,  or  do  any 
thing  for  me  ;  but  "  I  write  unto  you  that  ye  sin  not."  And 
what  does  he  teach  by  this  ?  That  the  whole  strain  and 
tendency  of  Christianity,  the  whole  scope  of  God's  revealed 
Word,  is  to  put  an  end  to  sin.  Its  promises,  its  precepts,  its 
hopes,  its  requirements,  its  thoughts,  all  go  to  put  an  end  to 
sin.  Nobody  can  deny,  whatever  else  he  may  assert,  that 
the  Bible's  tendency  is  to  make  man  holier  and  happier  even 
upon  earth  ;  and  if  we  did  not  see  its  tendency,  it  so  fre- 
quently asserts  it,  that  we  cannot  possibly  deny  it.     "  Ye  are 


244  OUR    ADVOCATE. 

a  cliosen  generation,  a  holy  nation,  a  royal  priesthood,  to 
show  forth  the  praises  of  him  who  hath  called  you  from 
darkness  into  his  marvellous  light."  "  The  grace  of  God 
teacheth  us  to  live  soberly,  righteously,  godly,  in  this  pres- 
ent world,  looking  for  that  blessed  hope."  The  best  evi- 
dence of  Christianity  is  its  fruits.  I  do  not  say  there  may 
not  be  noble,  honorable,  impressive  traits  in  human  charac- 
ter without  Christianity ;  but  I  do  say  that  wherever  Chris- 
tianity is,  those  traits  will  be,  and  not  only  will  they  be,  but 
they  will  be  beautified,  and  inspired,  and  covered  with  a 
richer  glory.  When  we  assert  that  man  is  fallen  and  cor- 
rupt, we  do  not  mean  to  say  that  earth  has  become  a  Pande- 
monium, and  that  men  are  become  demons.  This  is  not 
true.  There  are  still  on  the  surface  of  humanity  the  linger- 
ing rays  of  Paradise ;  there  are  still  in  the  hearts  of  human- 
ity the  feelings  that  were  first  felt  in  Paradise ;  there  is 
much  that  is  beautiful  in  human  nature  developed  by  its 
finest  specimens ;  but  we  must  also  admit  that  there  is  much 
that  is  degraded  and  desperately  wicked  In  these,  and  de- 
veloped by  its  worst ;  and  we  still  more  maintain  that  the 
only  power  that  can  lift  human  nature  to  that  table-land  on 
which  it  will  shine  most  beautiful,  and  bear  its  most  fragrant 
fruit,  is  the  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God. 

"  Little  children,  I  write  unto  you  that  ye  sin  not."  This 
is  the  end  and  object  of  my  writing.  But  he  says,  "  If  any 
man  sin."  He  says,  it  is  quite  jjlaln  that  while  this  is  what 
we  ought  not  to  do,  it  is  right  that  there  should  be  a  pro- 
vision made  for  Avhat  will  occur  in  the  case  of  every  man, 
in  every  age,  and  under  every  circumstance.  "  If  any  man 
sin,  we  have  an  advocate  with  the  Father."  And  then  this 
is  connected  with  the  previous  passage  —  that  "  if  we  say 
we  have  no  sin,  we  deceive  ourselves."  But  the  phrase,  "  If 
any  man  sin,"  implies  that  purity  and  holiness  will  be  the 
spontaneous  fruits  of  Christum  character,  and  that  the  sin 
will  be  incidental   or  accidental.     He  assumes  throughout 


I 


OUR    ADVOCATE.  245 

the  whole  passage,  that  not  to  sin  is  the  polarity  or  the  ten- 
dency of  a  true  Christian  ;  but  he  also  admits  the  possibility, 
nay,  the  probability,  nay,  the  certainty,  of  a  flaw  in  the 
best — sin  in  the  holiest;  and  therefore  he  states  the  pro- 
vision, "  If  any  man  sin."  Man  breathes  an  infected  air ; 
he  has  a  law  in  his  members  still  warring  against  the  law 
of  his  soul :  and  he  that  knows  his  own  heart  best  will  be 
the  first  to  sympathize  with  the  infirmities,  the  sins,  as  well 
as  the  fears  of  the  rest  of  mankind.  The  least  enlightened 
are  the  least  sympathizing ;  the  truest  Christian  has  ever 
the  richest  sympathy.  The  high-priest  of  old  had  infirmi- 
ties and  ignorances  that  he  must  atone  for ;  but  our  Great 
High- Priest  alone  has  no  ignorance  or  infirmity  of  his  own 
to  atone  for ;  but  it  is  said,  we  have  one  who  can  sympathize 
with  our  infirmities,  and  can  have  compassion  on  the  igno- 
rant, and  on  them  that  are  out  of  the  way. 

Having  thus  seen  the  introduction  to  the  provision,  let  me 
notice  now  its  two  leading  positions  —  namely,  an  Advocate 
with  the  Father,  and  a  propitiation  for  our  sins. 

We  have,  first  of  all,  he  says,  an  advocate  with  the 
Father ;  a  paraclete :  the  Avord,  singularly  enough,  applied 
to  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  meaning  one  that  represents  us. 
In  fact,  excluding  the  infirmity  that  cleaves  to  the  human, 
it  is  just  the  advocate  and  the  chent  in  the  human  court ; 
but  instead  of  an  advocate  and  a  client  having  to  deal  with 
a  judge  bound  to  rigid  law,  it  is  an  Advocate  with  our 
Father,  dealing  with  his  children  according  to  mercy,  as  well 
as  justice,  after  love  as  well  as  truth.  We  have  an  Advocate 
with  the  Father,  and  thus,  as  our  advocate,  Christ  appears 
in  heaven.  How  significant  is  that  expression  of  the  apostle 
—  "  Christ  has  gone  to  heaven  to  appear  for  us  ! "  There 
is  no  intimation  that  he  speaks  for  us  in  heaven  ;  whilst  he 
luis  still  human  lips,  and  a  human  heart,  and  human  sensi- 
bilities, yet  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  speaks  for  us.  All 
that  the  apostle  says,  is,  that  he  appears  for  us.     Let  him  be 

21* 


246  OUR    ADVOCATE. 

dumb,  the  spectacle  is  intensely  eloquent ;  let  our  Advocate 
say  nothing,  yet  there  he  is,  with  all  the  traces  of  his  agony 
—  with  all  the  trophies  of  his  victory  —  our  representative, 
the  first-fruits  of  our  humanity ;  so  that  whatever  he  de- 
serves we  deserve ;  whatever  he  is  —  whatever  he  has  at- 
tained—  we  may  be.  There  is  the  possibility  of  our  ad- 
mission into  heaven,  for  a  human  one  has  gone  before  us ; 
there  is  the  certainty  of  our  admission,  for  our  Advocate  is 
there  pleading  for  us ;  and  pleading,  not  with  a  judge  that 
delights  to  repel  us,  but  with  our  Father,  too  happy  (if  I  may 
speak  in  language  strictly  human)  to  have  an  opportunity  of 
letting  forth  his  mercy  upon  us.  An  Advocate  with  the 
Father. 

We  notice,  in  the  next  place,  while  he  is  our  Advocate 
with  the  Father,  it  is  in  connection  with  forgiveness.  "  If 
any  man  sin,  we  have  an  advocate  with  the  Father."  What 
is  the  use  of  the  advocate  here  ?  To  obtain  for  him  that  sin's 
forgiveness.  If  sin  were  impossible  in  Christians,  then  an 
advocate  would  be  unnecessary  in  heaven.  As  long  as  we 
have  an  advocate  Avith  the  Father,  so  long  there  is  the  pos- 
sibility of  our  sinning  upon  earth.  And  what  does  he  say 
when  he  secures  for  us  forgiveness  ?  He  answers  the  law, 
replies  to  every  objection.  What  does  an  advocate  do  now  ? 
If  an  honest  one,  and  not  one  that  gets  up  and  speaks  lies  in 
order  to  let  a  criminal  escape,  he  will  put  every  point  that 
is  favorable  to  his  client  in  the  most  prominent  light ;  and  he 
will  also,  if  the  law  goes  against  his  client,  state  what  reasons 
there  are  for  softening  or  mitigating  the  penalty  of  the  law. 
He  will  not  deny  his  guilt,  but  he  will  show  reasons  for  a 
mitigated  sentence.  Our  Blessed  Lord  does  not  deny  our 
sin  in  fact,  or  guilt,  but  he  shows  how  it  may  be  pardoned. 
He  does  not  deny  that  God  is  just,  but  he  shows  (I  am 
speaking  of  course  in  human  speech  ;  it  is  all  seen,  it  needs 
not  to  be  laid  out  in  heaven  in  detail ;  but  I  am  analyzing  it 
and  stating  in  fragments  what  we  can  only  comprehend  iu 


OUR    ADVOCATE.  247 

fragments,)  shows  God's  justice,  and  truth,  and  foitlifulness, 
and  love,  may  be  more  glorious,  may  be  seen  by  the  universe 
more  intense  in  their  character,  by  the  forgiveness  of  the 
greatest  sinner  that  has  recourse  to  the  Advocate  with  the 
Father,  than  they  ever  could  have  been  seen  by  the  ex- 
tinction of  our  orb,  and  the  condemnation  of  all  his  progeny 
upon  it.  Now  what  a  blessed  thought  is  this  —  that  our 
Advocate  in  heaven,  whether  in  speech  or  otherwise,  is  at 
this  moment  showing  that  there  are  no  such  reasons  for  our 
ruin,  as  there  are  for  our  salvation ;  that  there  are  ten  thou- 
sand times  ten  thousand  more  reasons  why  you  and  I  should 
be  saved  for  ever,  than  there  are  why  you  and  I  should  be 
condemned.  It  is  easy  to  teach  men  to  be  terrified  at  God, 
and  to  think  of  God  as  a  terrible  and  an  awful  Being, 
ready  to  consume  them  in  a  moment ;  but  it  is  very  difficult  to 
persuade  them  that  God  seeks  to  bless  them ;  that  there  is 
nothing  to  prevent  his  richest  blessing  descending  upon  them ; 
that  the  obstruction  is  not  in  Christ,  the  Way,  but  in  their 
own  hearts.  "  Ye  will  not  come  to  me,  that  ye  may  be  saved." 
Now,  argues  the  apostle  here,  "  If  any  man  sin,"  it  is  not, 
as  in  the  case  of  thousands,  to  drive  you  to  despair.  He 
does  not  say.  If  any  man  sin,  let  him  despair;  but.  If 
any  man  sin,  here  is  the  provision.  We  have  an  Ad- 
vocate. The  tendency  of  a  sinner  when  he  sins,  when 
he  has  been  unfortunate  enough  to  sin,  —  for  of  all  mis- 
fortunes on  earth  that  is  the  worst  —  is  to  run  and  hide 
himself  from  God  —  there  is  no  doubt  of  this  —  and  to  try  to 
get  rid  of  the  thoughts  of  his  sin ;  and  he  thinks  that  he 
gets  rid  of  his  sin  by  getting  rid  of  the  thoughts  of  it :  as 
an  ostrich,  pursued  in  the  desert,  buries  its  head  in  the  sand, 
and  thinks  the  Arab  steed  will  be  unable  to  overtake  it, 
because  it  cannot  see  it.  But  that  is  not  the  way.  John 
says,  If  any  man  sin,  we  are  not  to  try  to  forget  it,  nor  are 
we  to  despair ;  but  we  have  an  Advocate  for  such  a  contin- 
gency, to  whom  we  may  go  and  receive  instantly  forgive- 


248  OUR    ADVOCATE. 

ness.  Ask  nature,  "  If  any  man  sin,  what  is  he  to  do  ?  " 
Nature  must  answer,  "  I  know  not,  and  have  been  unable  for 
six  thousand  years  to  discover."  Ask  the  law,  "  If  any  man 
sin,  what  is  he  to  do  ?  "  It  will  answer,  "  There  is  only  for 
him  a  fearful  looking  for  judgment  and  fiery  indignation." 
Ask  the  Pope  of  Rome  what  he  is  to  do.  Kneel  down  and 
confess  to  a  priest,  and  get  absolution  !  Ask  the  Holy  Spirit 
what  he  is  to  do.  If  any  man  sin,  we  have  not  a  j^riest  to 
introduce  us,  not  a  saint  to  guide  us,  but  access,  personally, 
directly,  and  without  obstruction,  to  an  Advocate  with  the 
Father,  who  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours 
only,  but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world.  Beautiful  and 
blessed  gospel !  Is  any  man  sick  ?  We  have  a  Physician. 
Is  any  man  in  debt  ?  We  have  the  great  Paymaster,  Jesus 
Christ.  Any  man  dying  ?  We  have  Life.  Any  oj^pressed  ? 
We  have  an  Advocate  to  take  up  our  cause.  Any  man 
guilty  ?     A  Propitiation  for  our  sins. 

Our  Redeemer  is  here  set  before  us  officially  —  our  Ad- 
vocate. I  want  you  to  see  the  full  stress  of  this.  When 
we  look  upon  Christ  as  our  advocate,  then  he  becomes  most 
dear,  most  precious.  But  he  is  our  advocate,  because  it  is  his 
office.  When  a  man  holds  an  office,  I  apply  to  him  in  the 
expectation  that  he  w^ill  fulfil  the  duties  of  that  office.  If 
I  go  to  a  physician,  I  do  not  expect  that  he  is  to  send  me 
away,  or  that  he  is  to  talk  politics  or  science,  but  that  he  is 
to  learn  what  my  complaint  is,  and  prescribe  for  its  cure. 
If  I  go  to  a  lawyer,  I  do  not  expect  that  he  is  to  explain 
statutes  or  Acts  of  Parliament  to  me,  but  that  he  is  to  fulfd 
his  office,  and  defend  my  cause.  I  exj^ect  the  sun  to  shine, 
because  he  is  appointed  for  that  purpose ;  I  expect  the  stars 
to  twinkle  at  night,  because  such  is  their  use  ;  and  I  ex- 
pect Jesus  —  I  say  it  with  reverence  and  with  joy  —  to 
intercede  for  me,  and  plead  for  me,  and  take  up  my  cause, 
because  it  is  his  office  to  do  so.  He  is  set  forth,  says  the 
apostle,  to  be  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  through  faith  in 


OUR    ADVOCATE.  249 

lii3  precious  blood.  Now  wlint  a  truth  is  hero,  —  that  uo 
man  can  go  to  Christ  as  his  advocate,  and  be  rejected !  It 
is  his  office  to  intercede  and  to  plead. 

But  this  expression,  "If  any  man  sin  we  have  an  advo- 
cate with  the  Father,"  implies  that  we  have  an  advocate  to 
apply  to.  We  must  fill  up  the  sentence.  "  If  any  man  sin, 
we  have  an  advocate  with  the  Father  to  cqjply  to  ;  "  not  to 
pay  for,  not  to  search  out,  not  to  invent  or  create,  but  ready 
for  his  function,  rejoicing  to  do  his  work,  as  the  sun  like  a 
bridegroom  coming  forth  from  his  chamber,  and  like  a  strong 
man  to  run  a  race,  to  apply  to.  And  it  is  without  any  loss 
of  time.  "  If  any  man  sin  we  have  an  advocate  ; "  not,  we 
have  to  wait  till  arrangements  are  made,  till  adjustments  are 
all  filled  ;  not,  as  we  have  to  do  when  we  go  to  consult  a  phy- 
sician or  a  barrister,  till  his  chamber  is  emptied  of  crowds  of 
previous  applicants.  But  if  any  man  sin,  we  have  an  advo- 
cate now,  without  interruption,  without  delay,  and  without 
obstruction  of  any  kind,  to  apply  to,  who  is  the  propitiation 
for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours  only,  but  for  the  sins  of  the 
whole  world ;  and  the  lightning  flame  does  not  flash  from 
one  end  of  the  globe  to  another  with  such  rapidity  as  the 
prayer  of  a  sinner  addressed  to  Jesus  passes  to  the  mercy- 
seat  ;  for  the  promise  is,  "  Whilst  they  are  yet  speaking,  I 
will  answer."  Faster  than  an  angel's  wing  can  clip,  the 
j)rayer  of  the  humblest  sinner  rises  to  our  Advocate. 

Not  only  is  it  without  loss  of  time,  but  w^e  have  an  Advo- 
cate to  apply  to  without  labor.  It  is  not  now  in  Jerusalem 
the  only  place  where  sacrifices  can  be  offered,  where  the 
higli-priest  can  be  seen,  and  engaged  to  intercede  and  i)lead 
for  us.  It  is  not  now  on  this  mountain,  nor  on  that  moun- 
tain, tluit  we  have  to  pray.  Tliere  are  no  deserts  to  cross, 
there  are  no  distances  to  span,  no  broad  seas  between,  but, 
without  loss  of  time,  without  labor,  v;ithout  toil,  everywhere 
and  anywhere,  on  the  ocean  and  on  the  land,  in  the  height 
and  in  the  depth,  —  if  any  man  anywhere  sin,  we  have  an 


250  OUR   ADVOCATE. 

advocate  everywhere  to  apply  to,  and  he  is  the  j)i*opItiation 
for  our  sins. 

AVe  have  this  Advocate  to  apply  to  without  any  interme- 
diate party.  You  have  not  to  ask  a  priest  to  introduce  you, 
or  to  heg  that  he  wdll  use  his  patronage  with  your  Advocate 
in  your  behalf.  What  a  precious  thought !  The  groimd- 
work  of  Protestantism,  that  is,  of  Bible  Christianity,  is,  that 
the  sinner  may  approach  the  Father,  through  Christ  Jesus, 
without  asking  the  leave  of  priest,  or  presbyter,  or  prelate, 
or  poj)e,  or  any  human  being,  or  angel,  saint,  or  cherubim. 
It  is  your  privilege  ;  and  he  that  seizes  his  privilege  most 
vigorously  —  acts  upon  it  most  instantly  —  is  not  guilty  of 
the  greatest  presumption,  but  rather  manifests  the  deepest 
humility.  True  humility  is  in  doing  what  God  bids  us.  If 
our  most  gracious  Queen  were  to  command  the  poorest  and 
the  humblest  widow  to  step  into  her  carriage  wath  her,  it 
w^ould  be  true  loyalty  and  true  obedience  instantly  to  accept 
the  oifer ;  and  it  would  not  be  the  truest  and  the  noblest 
response  to  say,  "  I  am  not  worthy."  The  King  of  kings 
bids  you  come  to  himself;  true  humility  is  to  say,  "  Blessed 
Lord,  to  whom  can  we  go  but  unto  thee  ?  Thou  hast  the 
words  of  eternal  life." 

An  advocate  clearly  imi^lies  a  judge  as  well  as  a  client ; 
but  this  advocacy  relates  to  a  judge  who  is  our  Father.  I 
have  heard  some  one  say,  the  Lord's  Prayer,  which  begins 
w^ith  "  Our  Father,"  is  not  Christian  enough :  a  more  stupid 
or  unscriptural  opinion  I  cannot  conceive  it  possible  for 
human  lips  to  express.  The  reason  given  for  it  is,  because 
Christ's  name  does  not  occur  in  it.  But  who  prayed  it? 
Christ  himself.  When  he  first  prayed  it,  he  was  the  spokes- 
man :  when  he  knelt  upon  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  with 
that  frail  group  of  twelve  fishermen  and  publicans  around 
him,  and  said,  "  Our  Father,"  he  presented  in  this  the  em- 
bodiment of  my  text.  "  If  any  man  sin,  we  have  "  —  and 
there  he  is  —  "  an  advocate  with  our  Father  "  which  art  iu 


I 


OUR   ADVOCATE.  251 

heaven.  Every  time,  therefore,  that  you  say  "  Our  Fatlier," 
remember  it  implies  the  intermediation  of  our  Advocate 
Avith  Ilim. 

But  the  second  division  is,  "the  propitiation  for  our  sins." 
This  advocacy  is  so  precious,  because  based  upon  a  previous 
fact,  namely,  his  propitiation.  "  We  have  an  advocate  with 
the  Father,  wlio  is  the  propitiation."  The  advocacy  within 
the  veil  is  contingent,  and  based  upon  the  propitiation  with- 
out the  gate.  You  remember  the  high-priest  first  made 
atonement  outside ;  then  he  brought  some  of  the  blood  into 
the  holy  place ;  and  amid  much  incense  he  interceded  ibr 
the  tribes  of  Israel.  Our  High-Priest  suffered,  says  the 
apostle,  without  the  gate :  he  then  passed  into  the  true  holy 
of  holies,  and  there  his  advocacy  is  what  John,  in  the  Book 
of  Revelation,  called  the  "  much  incense "  in  the  golden 
censer  of  the  angel,  or  the  Angel  Lord,  the  Great  Iligh- 
Priest.  "  Another  angel  came  and  stood  at  the  altar,  hav- 
ing a  golden  censer,  and  there  was  given  unto  liim  much 
incense,"  —  that  is,  the  advocacy  rising  from  the  atonement 
on  Calvary,  as  the  incense  ascended  from  the  sacrifice  in 
the  ancient  economy,  that  he  might  offer  it  in  this  golden 
censer;  the  high-priest  alone  having  a  golden  censer,  the 
other  priests  having  silver  ones.  That  incense,  or  advocacy, 
he  offers  with  the  prayers  of  all  saints  —  that  is.  Chris- 
tians —  gi^'ing  its  perfume,  its  fragrance,  its  value,  its 
acceptance,  to  every  prayer  that  every  Christian  offers 
either  in  heaven  or  upon  earth.  Our  High-Priest,  having 
suffered  upon  the  altar,  now  stands  with  the  golden  censer. 
Having  been  our  Atonement,  he  is  now  our  Advocate  with 
the  Father.  Because  he  is  our  Atonement,  therefore  the 
expression  occurs,  "  Jesus  Christ  the  righteous.''  Why 
righteous  —  why  is  this  alluded  to?  Because  it  is  in  virtue 
of  his  being  the  Righteous  One,  —  the  Lord  our  Righteous- 
ness —  that  he  stands  before  the  altar,  and  advocates  our 
cause,  and  pleads  for  us.     The  word  "  propitiation  "  is  not  a 


252  OUR    ADVOCATE. 

very  common  word  in  the  Bible,  althoiigli  analogous  words 
are  so.  The  word  itself  occurs  in  our  English  version  in 
three  parts :  —  Romans  iii.  25,  "  Whom  God  hath  set  forth 
to  be  a  propitiation  through  fjiith  in  his  blood ; "  again,  in 
1  John  iv.  10, "  He  loved  us,  and  sent  his  Son  to  be  the  pro- 
pitiation for  our  sins ; "  and  also  in  our  text,  "  He  is  the 
propitiation  for  our  sins."  It  is  ikaoTrjpLov,  the  word  usually 
applied  to  the  mercy-seat  in  the  Temple  and  the  Tabernacle 
of  old ;  and  it  means,  that  just  as  that  mercy-seat  covered 
the  two  tables  of  the  Law  that  were  below  it,  muffling  their 
thunders,  and  satisfying  their  exactions ;  and,  secondly,  as 
upon  that  mercy-seat  there  was  an  unearthly  glory  that  was 
first  kindled  from  heaven,  and  from  which  the  fire  on  every 
altar,  and  the  light  in  every  lamp  was  kindled,  —  so  is 
Christ  to  us.  How  remarkable,  that  all  the  lights  and  fires 
of  the  Temple  of  Israel  were  kindled  from  the  celestial 
flame  that  was  in  the  pillar  of  cloud  by  day  and  the  pillar 
of  fire  by  night,  and  that  afterwards  settled  between  the 
cherubim  on  the  mercy-seat.  Christ  is  our  mercy-seat,  to 
which  we  may  go.  The  vail  that  kept  Israel  o^  from  it  is 
now  rent.  When  Christ  died,  the  vail  of  the  temple  was 
rent  in  twain  ;  and  now  every  Christian,  being  a  priest,  has 
access  to  the  holy  of  holies,  where  Christ,  our  Advocate,  is. 
This  propitiation  was  his  atonement  or  his  sacrifice  for  our 
sins.  What  he  did  upon  the  Cross  on  Calvary  is  the  propi- 
tiation —  what  he  does  now  in  heaven  is  the  advocacy  that  is 
built  upon  it.  And  I  may  explain  still  further,  by  stating 
that  the  Hebrew  word  applied  to  "  atonement,"  occurs,  I 
should  think,  some  hundred  times  in  the  Old  Testament 
Scripture,  corresponding  to  the  Greek  word  here  translated 
"  propitiation."  That  Hebrew  word  is  Kaphar,  and  what  is 
very  singular  it  is  one  of  those  Hebrew  words  which  still 
occur  in  our  language.  We  use  the  word  "  cover,"  which  is 
derived  from  the  Hebrew  word  Kaphar.  Throughout  the 
Levitical  economy,  and  in  the  Book  of  Leviticus,  it  is  the 


OUR    ADVOCATE.  253 

word  constantly  used  for  atonement  —  propitiation.  It  is 
employed  by  the  Psalmist,  when  he  says,  "  Blessed  is  the 
man  whose  iniquities  are  covered,"  —  tliat  is,  atoned  for,  ex- 
piated ;  and  the  idea  evidently  designed  to  be  conveyed  is 
this:  —  that  just  as  a  robe  laid  over  an  object  conceals  it 
from  the  out^\'ard  gaze,  so  God  will  deal  with  them  that  be- 
lieve on  Jesus,  as  if  all  their  sins  were  covered  over  with  the 
spotless  robe  of  his  righteousness,  and,  in  the  language  that 
he  himself  sanctions,  he  will  see  no  iniquity  in  Jacob,  and  no 
perverseness  in  Israel.  What  a  beautiful  thought,  that  our 
sins  are  covered  by  the  robe  of  the  Redeemer's  righteous- 
ness ;  so  that  a  Christian  shall  stand  before  the  judgment- 
seat,  and  be  holy  and  happy,  because  he  has  washed  his 
robes  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the  Lamb ;  and 
thus  serves  him  day  and  night  without  ceasing ! 

Because  Christ  is  our  advocate  with  the  Father,  therefore 
the  propitiation  has  been  completed.  You  remember  tliat 
the  high-priest  only  passed  into  the  holy  place  to  advocate 
after  he  had  offered  up  the  victim  without ;  and  it  was  a  law, 
that,  whilst  the  high-priest  was  in  the  holy  of  holies  pleading, 
no  atonement  of  any  sort  must,  or  dare,  be  offered  up  with- 
out. What  an  extinguisher  is  this  to  the  view  of  the  Trac- 
tarians  and  Romanists,  with  respect  to  the  Lord's  Supper  — 
that  it  is  a  propitiatory  sacrifice !  Our  Advocate  is  in  the  holy 
place  pleading ;  and  it  is  a  law  of  his  appointment  that  no 
sacrifice  must  be  going  on  without  —  that  is,  upon  earth. 
Then  what  have  we  to  do  ?  Not  to  make  a  sacrifice,  but  to 
plead  one  already  made ;  not  to  offer  an  atonement,  but  to 
say,  "  We  are  satisfied  with  that  atonement  that  God  has 
given  us."  AVhat  is  involved  in  the  awful  notion  of  offering 
up  Christ  upon  the  altar,  as  it  is  called,  is  the  terrible  thought 
that  Christ  is  not  enough  for  us  ;  we  must  make  another  sac- 
rifice of  our  own  as  well.  My  dear  friends,  we  have  a  vSac- 
rifice  that  needs  not  to  be  repeated ;  it  was  completed  when 

22 


254  OUR   ADVOCATE. 

Jesus  cried,  "  It  is  finished !  "  and  on  the  force  of  that  he 
now  offers  up  a  ceaseless  advocacy  beside  the  throne. 

He  is  the  "  propitiation  for  our  sins  ;  and  not  for  ours 
only,  but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."  I  think  those 
that  try  to  explain  this  by  the  supposition  that  this  means, 
not  for  the  Jews  only,  but  also  for  the  Gentiles,  utterly  mis- 
understand its  meaning.  Whatever  the  meaning  be,  that 
cannot  be  it.  First,  John  was  not  writing  to  Jews,  but  to 
Christians ;  after  the  Jewish  economy  had  ceased,  when  the 
Tem2)le  had  gone,  an4  all  its  glory  had  passed  away.  And, 
therefore,  this  is  not  the  explanation  of  it.  My  idea  is,  that 
John  wrote  it  to  rebuke  the  particularism  —  if  I  may  so 
phrase  it  —  the  bigotry,  the  exclusiveness  of  existing  Chris- 
tian churches,  who  believed  that  they  had  taken  the  place  of 
the  Jews,  and  that  those  within  their  own  narrow  limits  alone 
could  be  saved.  We  believe,  that  this  propitiation  is  avail- 
able to  the  greatest  savage  as  well  as  to  the  most  civilized. 
We  do  not  assert  that  it  is  a  propitiation  accepted  by  all  — 
this  is  a  very  different  thing  —  nor  a  propitiation  that  all 
will  accept,  nor  a  propitiation  that  all  will  be  forgiven  by ; 
but,  we  do  assert  that  it  is  a  propitiation  available  to  every 
man,  of  every  degree,  and  of  every  stamp  ;  of  every  country, 
and  every  kindred,  and  every  place  upon  earth  :  and  if  any 
man  does  not  accept  it,  it  is  either  because  he  does  not  know 
it,  or  because  he  will  not  accept  of  it  when  it  is  offered  to 
him.  We  do  not  believe,  as  I  have  said  before,  that  there  is 
any  decree  driving  men  to  hell.  We  do  not  believe  in  any 
man  being  driven  to  eternal  misery  in  spite  of  himself.  Nay, 
I  do  not  believe  that  any  man  is  going  to  perdition  without 
his  knowing  it  well  enough.  If  I  address  any  that  are  re- 
jecters of  this  gospel,  they  know  quite  well  that  they  are  so 
—  they  know  that  it  costs  them  the  greatest  trouble  to  keep 
down  the  remonstrances  of  conscience ;  and  I  am  persuaded 
that  it  gives  a  man  a  great  deal  more  trouble  and  agony  in 


OUR    ADVOCATE.  255 

order  to  go  clown  to  hell  than  it  ever  co:^t  a  saint  to  get  to 
glory.  How  many  sermons  have  you  to  quench,  what  re- 
flections liave  you  to  keep  out,  what  pangs  of  conscience 
have  you  to  get  rid  of;  what  pleasures,  what  dissipations 
have  you  to  follow,  in  order  to  kill  time,  that  would  otherwise 
be  insufferable ! 

My  dear  friends,  there  is  a  Propitiation,  the  efficacy  of 
which  is  sufficient  for  all  —  the  offer  of  which  is  made  to  all. 
"Why  should  any  man  reject  it  ?  Is  it  something  terrible  to 
be  a  Christian  —  is  it  something  sepulchral  to  be  a  child 
of  God  ?  I  believe  that  a  true  Christian  can  listen  to  sweet 
music  wdth  greater  ecstasy,  can  gaze  upon  the  beautiful  pan- 
oramas of  the  world  with  greater  delight,  can  go  forth  and 
enjoy  the  bright  morning  sun,  and  retire  at  evening  twilight 
wath  greater  pleasure,  than  the  man  who  is  living  without 
God,  and  w^ithout  Christ,  and  without  hope  in  the  world. 
If  to  be  a  Christian  meant  to  go  and  be  a  nun  or  a  monk,  I 
could  understand  people  refusing  to  accept  it ;  this  Avould  be 
natural :  but  we  do  not  ask  you  to  renounce  the  v/orld,  but 
to  be  in  it,  and  to  have  your  hearts  above  it.  A  Christian 
may  be  a  soldier,  or  he  may  be  a  sailor,  a  merchant,  a  trades- 
man, a  lawyer,  a  physician  ;  and  the  man  will  best  serve  his 
Queen  who  most  loves  and  serves  his  God.  We  may  de- 
pend upon  it  that  Christianity  will  make  every  relationship 
more  beautiful;  it  will  make  every  duty  more  lightsome; 
because  when  tliere  is  within  a  heart  at  peace  wuth  God,  all 
nature  without  will  reflect  peace  and  satisfaction  on  you. 


CHAPTER    V. 


PEACE    WITH    GOD. 


"Therefore  being  justified  by  faith,  Ave  have  peace  with  God  through  our 
Lord  Jesus  Christ."  —  Romans  v.  1. 

You  will  remember  that  when  I  read  the  first  chapter  of 
the  Book  of  Leviticus,  descriptive  of  expiatory  sacrifices,  I 
addressed  you  upon  the  nature  of  the  offering  of  Christ,  his 
sacrifice  once  for  all  for  the  sins  of  them  that  believe.  When 
we  read  the  second  chapter  of  Leviticus,  descriptive  of  the 
meat-oiferings  that  were  to  be  presented  by  Israel,  I  showed 
that  under  our  economy  our  true  meat-offering  is  not  what 
they  presented,  but  ourselves.  "  We  beseech  you  hy  mercies 
that  ye  present,"  not  meat-offerings  of  corn,  and  bread,  and 
oil,  and  wine,  but  "  that  ye  present  your  hodies  living  sac- 
rifices, acceptable  to  God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service." 

Having  now  read  of  the  peace-offering,  expressive  of  peace 
between  God  and  Israel,  I  here  select  a  text  that  is  the  sum- 
mary of  the  chapter  —  "Tlierefore  being  justified  by  faith," 
in  the  ex})iatory  offering  finished  eighteen  centuries  ago,  we 
have  now,  not  to  present  a  peace-offering  but  to  taste  the 
sweetness,  the  joy,  and  the  satisfaction  of  peace  with  God 
through  Christ,  the  only  atonement. 

The  blessing  brought  before  us  is  peace,  and  the  Avay  by 
which  it  is  enjoyed,  is  also  described.  This  will  lead  me  to 
show  you  what  is  the  nature  of  true  peace,  in  contradistinc- 
tion to  the  mockery  of  it  that  prevails  in  the  imagination, 
and  sometimes  in  the  convictions,  of  many. 

(25G) 


PEACE    WITH    GOD.  257 

Almost  every  chapter  in  the  Bible  is  eloquent  with  the 
blessings  of  peace.  If  Ave  look  at  Christendom,  we  should 
think  that  man  came  into  the  world  especially  desirous  to 
fulfil  the  prophecy,  "  1  am  come  not  to  send  peace  on  the 
earth,  but  a  sword : "  but  if  we  look  into  this  blessed  Book 
we  shall  see  that  the  direct  tendency  of  every  truth,  and 
doctrine,  and  promise,  and  precept,  is  glory  to  God  in  the 
highest,  on  earth  peace,  and  good-will  among  mankind. 

Wherever  the  tree  of  life  appears  in  its  congenial  soil,  the 
rich  blossoms  of  joy,  the  precious  fruits  of  peace,  grow  upon 
its  branches  over  all  the  world :  notwithstanding  its  storms, 
its  clouds,  and  its  controversies,  there  is  breaking  out  day  by 
day,  in  greater  fulness,  and  in  richer  beauty,  the  covenant 
bow  —  the  bow  of  promise  and  j)eace,  to  all  mankind.  How 
often  does  the  Scripture  speak  of  peace  !  "  This  man  "  — 
speaking  of  the  Saviour  —  "  shall  be  our  peace."  How  beau- 
tiful that  text,  "  Thou,  0  God,  wilt  keep  in  perfect  peace  the 
man  "  —  not  who  is  rich  or  who  is  great ;  not  who  is  praised, 
not  who  is  distinguished  by  his  fellow  men  —  but  "the  man 
that  trusteth  in  thee,"  or  "  whose  mind  is  stayed  on  thee." 
Again,  the  Saviour  says,  "  These  things  have  I  spoken  to 
you  that  in  me  "  —  whatever  you  have  in  the  world  —  "  ye 
may  have  peace."  And,  again,  the  apostle  says,  "  Our  feet 
shod  with  the  preparation  of  the  gospel  oi peace.''  The  very 
definition  of  Christianity  —  its  distinctive  and  emphatic  defi,- 
nition  —  is,  "  The  kingdom  of  God  is  not  meat,  nor  drink," 
—  nor  is  it  clothing,  I  may  add,  nor  is  it  Episcopacy,  nor 
Presbyterianism,  nor  Congregationalism,  nor  fasting,  nor 
feasting,  but  it  is  —  oh !  that  we  only  felt  it  more  to  be  so  ! 
— "  righteousness,  peace,  joy,  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  Now 
men  wlio  do  not  exhibit  these  graces  in  their  lives,  and  feel 
their  influence  in  their  hearts,  —  may  be  Churchmen  —  it 
is  easy  to  be  so,  —  they  may  be  Dissenters  —  it  is  easy  to 
be  that ;  but  they  are  not  Christians.  The  distinctive  char- 
acter of  a  Christian  is,.that  his  heart  is  the  throne,  and  his 

22* 


258  PEACE    WITH    GOD. 

bosom  the  home,  of  righteousness,  and  peace,  and  joy ;  and 
his  life  radiates  upon  the  world  the  grand  blessings  that  he 
has  felt  and  tasted  within  him. 

Now  this  text,  "Justified  by  faith  we  have  peace  with 
God,"  gives  us  the  root  of  peace,  and  the  way  in  which  it 
grows,  the  process  by  which  it  is  to  be  implanted  or  infused 
into  our  hearts,  and  the  exclusive  and  only  condition  of  the 
obtainment  of  so  great  and  so  precious  a  blessing.  It  teaches 
us  that  peace  grows  only  on  truth.     There  is  no  such  thing 

—  and  it  is  well  for  our  own  safety  and  comfort  we  should 
know  it  — as  peace  upon  any  tree  indigenous  to  the  earth  ;  it 
is  only  to  be  gathered  from  the  tree  of  truth.  Truth  and  peace 
are  both  of  them  most  desirable  ;  but  if  it  is  necessary  that  I 
should  part  with  one  of  them,  then  I  would  rather  part  with 
peace  than  with  truth  ;  because  if  true  peace  be  the  blossom, 
and  truth  the  plant  on  which  it  blossoms,  if  I  part  with  the 
plant,  next  Spring  there  will  be  neither  truth  nor  peace  ;  but 
if  I  part  with  the  blossom  —  peace  —  and  leave  the  plant  in 
the  soil,  it  will  hear  the  sound  of  the  footstep  of  returning 
Spring,  and,  under  gentle  suns  and  soft  showers,  it  will  bring 
forth  fiiirer  blossoms  than  it  had  before.  The  wisdom  from 
above  is  first  pure  —  that  is,  it  is  truth;  then  it  is  peaceable. 
Better  to  keep  from  truthful  controversy  if  we  can  avoid  it ; 
but  we  should  still  less  indulge  in  peaceable  falsehood; 
rather  we  must  seek,  what  is  freely  offered  to  us  all,  peace, 

—  the  ceaseless  and  the  fragrant  blossom  that  grows  on  truth, 
a  living  and  indestructible  jjlant. 

But  before  submitting  to  you  the  nature  of  this  peace,  let 
me  notice  some  of  its  counterfeits.  First,  there  prevails 
very  widely  among  mankind  what  I  may  call  the  peace  of 
ignorance  —  a  peace  that  rises  from  ignorance,  as  miasma 
rises  from  the  swamps,  or  neglected  and  untrodden  deserts 
of  the  world.  As  long  as  a  man  is  ignorant  of  the  infinite 
purity  of  God,  of  the  exactions  of  his  holy  and  his  uncom- 
promising law,  and  of  his  own  corrui|t,  flillen,  depraved,  and 


PEACE    WITH    GOD.  259 

guilty  nature,  so  long  that  man  fears  nothing,  he  is  therefore 
troubled  by  no  disquiet  —  he  has,  in  its  perfection,  what  the 
prophet  calls  "  peace,  peace,  when  there  is  no  peace  at  all." 
But  such  peace  is  the  quiet  of  fallen  nature,  not  the  peace 
of  the  everlasting  gospel.  The  first  ray  of  truth  will  dis- 
turb it  —  the  first  flash  of  the  great  white  throne  will  scatter 
it  like  a  cloud ;  and  it  will  be  found  that  he  that  trusted  on 
such  a  peace,  leaned  upon  the  pointed  spear,  that  pierces  to 
the  quick  the  deepest  him  that  leans  upon  it  hardest.  The 
peace  that  springs  from  ignorance  is  no  peace  at  all.  I  can 
only  account  for  the  thoughtlessness  of  the  great  masses  of 
mankind,  with  respect  to  the  things  that  belong  to  their  eter- 
nal peace,  on  the  supposition  that  they  are  ignorant  of  the 
nature  of  God's  law  and  holy  character,  and  of  their  own 
fallen  condition  at  the  same  time.  If  these  three  great  facts 
were  vividly  impressed  upon  their  hearts,  the  false  peace 
would  instantly  be  broken,  and  they  would  begin  to  look 
beyond  for  the  peace  that  passeth  understanding,  that  a 
stranger  cannot  intermeddle  with. 

But  there  are  some  men,  in  the  second  place,  who  have  a 
peace  that  may  be  called  the  peace  of  formalism  —  that  is 
to  say,  they  have  some  slight  views  of  what  God  is,  some 
vague  impressions  of  what  their  own  guilt  is  ;  and,  in  order 
to  get  rid  of  any  disquiet  from  these  impressions  of  their 
own  ruin,  or  any  forebodings  of  penalty  from  God's  charac- 
ter, they  indulge  with  more  than  pharisaic  precision  in  the 
forms  they  love,  or  the  formalities  of  the  communion  to 
M'hicli  they  may  belong.  One  repeats  prayers  nine  times 
a-day  ;  another  counts  beads  ;  a  third  goes  a  long,  a  painful, 
and  a  weary  pilgrimage  ;  another  goes  to  church  as  a  duty, 
another  goes  to  chapel  as  still  more  his  duty  ;  and  another 
reads  chapters  of  the  Bible  —  it  matters  not  whether  it  be 
catalogues  of  names,  as  in  Numbers,  or  the  8th  chapter  of 
the  Epistle  to  the  Ivomans ;  he  derives  equal  instruction  and 
equal  nutriment,  —  that  is,  none,  —  from  either.     And  such 


260  PEACE   WITH    GOD. 

persons  fancy  that  wlien  they  have  thus  gone  to  church,  and 
said  their  prayers,  and  read  their  chaj)ter,  they  have  done 
their  duty ;  and  having  done  their  duty,  they  gather  their 
mantle  round  them,  indulge  in  the  quiet  but  dreamy  notion 
that  now  all  is  well,  and  they  have  peace  with  God.  Such 
peace  is  absolute  delusion;  it  is  a  peace,  but  it  is  not  the 
peace ;  it  is  an  opiate  that  deadens  the  pain,  but  does  not 
cure  the  disease  ;  it  is  a  quiet  that  will  last  in  sunny  and  in 
calm  weather,  but  it  will  be  rent  to  atoms  by  the  first  storm 
that  beats  upon  it,  and  the  issue  be  only  more  disastrous. 

There  is  the  peace  of  self-righteousness.  And  when  I 
allude  to  this,  do  not  misunderstand  me.  The  most  self- 
righteous  people  are  not  always  the  most  righteous.  On  the 
contrary,  we  shall  often  find  that  the  man  rests  most  upon 
his  own  doings  who  has  fewest  doings  to  rest  upon ;  and  that 
he  is  the  most  self-righteous  who  has  the  least  personal 
righteousness  to  lay  any  stress  upon.  It  seems  a  strange 
phenomenon;  though  not  an  unusual  one,  that  the  less  that 
one  has  of  moral  worth,  the  more  he  seems  to  make  of  what 
he  has ;  so  that  no  man  is  looking  more  intensely  for  heaven 
in  virtue  of  his  own  deserving  than  he  who  has  very  little  to 
lean  on,  either  in  heaven  or  on  earth.  You  fancy,  first  of 
all,  that  God  is  not  so  severe ;  and  the  language  of  Satan  to 
Adam  is  echoed  in  your  bosom  —  "  Hath  God  said  "  —  he 
knows  it  is  all  sham,  it  is  all  pretence ;  you  will  not  die,  why 
should  you  be  alarmed  ?  God  is  not  so  severe ;  is  his  law 
so  strict  ?  He  will  let  it  down  to  my  convenience ;  he  will 
connive  at  my  sins.  My  dear  friends,  if  that  were  God's 
character  I  could  have  no  confidence  in  him  at  all ;  no  confi- 
dence in  the  decree  that  condemns  sin,  no  confidence  in  the 
law  that  will  not  inflict  its  penalties  as  well  as  give  its  re- 
wards ;  and  if  you  could  show  me  that  your  notion  of  God  is 
a  just  one,  my  whole  confidence  in  his  government,  in  his 
law,  in  his  promises,  in  his  words,  would  be  literally  gone 
for  ever.     But  he  will  stand  through  everlasting  ages  to  the 


TEACE    WITH    GOD.  261 

aphorism  he  has  substantially  repeated  in  almost  every  page 
in  the  Bible  —  "  The  soul  that  sins  shall  die  ; "  and  he  will 
stand  eternally  to  the  glorious  truth  that  follows  it  —  "  The 
blood  of  Jesus  Christ  his  Son  cleanseth  from  all  sin."  God 
will  not  dilute  his  law  in  order  to  save  a  world ;  he  spared 
not  his  own  Son  in  order  to  deliver  a  single  soul.  The  peace 
that  springs  from  self-righteousness,  I  have  said,  is  an  ex- 
tremely subtle,  but  a  no  less  false  and  destructive  one.  I 
have  seen  persons  rejoicing  in  their  attainments,  believing 
that  this  is  the  evidence  of  grace  ;  and  I  have  seen  others 
sorrowing  that  they  had  no  attainments,  and  thinking  this 
was  the  evidence  of  grace.  Now  the  fact  is,  self-righteous- 
ness can  laugh  and  sing  when  it  exults  in  what  it  is,  and  self- 
righteousness  can  weep  and  cry  that  it  has  not  something  to 
exult  in,  or  in  which  it  can  glory.  So  j'ou  will  hear  other 
persons  say,  "  I  am  not  satisfied  with  my  faith ;  I  fear  I  have 
very  little  faith ;  and  I  am  not  at  all  satisfied  that  my  faith 
is  true."  My  dear  brother,  if  you  were  satisfied  wdth  your 
faith,  that  w^ould  be  the  very  worst  sign  that  your  character 
develops.  The  question  is  not,  are  you  satisfied  with  your 
faith ;  or  satisfied  with  your  attainments ;  but  are  you  satis- 
fied with  Christ  the  Saviour  ?  This  is  not  the  dispensation 
of  "  ^Vell  done,  thou  good  and  faithful  servant ; "  this  is  the 
dispensation  of  struggle,  of  fear,  of  perplexity,  often  of  grief; 
hereafter  will  be  the  time,  for  "  AYell  done,  thou  good  and 
faithful  servant." 

Another  person  will  say,  and  think  it  is  the  evidence  of 
the  highest  grace,  "  I  do  not  grieve  over  my  sins  as  I  ought." 
If  you  did  grieve  over  your  sins  as  you  ought,  you  w^ould  be 
so  delighted  with  yourself  that  you  would  trust  in  that  very 
grief  as  the  ground  of  your  acceptance  before  God.  What 
we  are  to  glory  in,  wdiat  we  are  to  be  satisfied  with  —  the 
richest  glory  that  embosoms  a  ransomed  and  redeemed  saint, 
is  Christ  alone,  all  our  righteousness,  all  our  salvation,  and 
all  our  desire. 


262  PEACE    WITH    GOD. 

There  Is  another  peace  which  I  must  allude  to  —  the 
peace  that  springs  from  feeling.  You  say,  "  I  was  at  tlie 
communion  table,  and  I  felt  so  calm ;  I  have  prayed,  and  I 
have  felt  so  much  delight  in  it ;  I  have  read  the  Bible,  and 
I  have  felt  so  much  joy."  Well,  all  this  is  right ;  these  are 
proper  feelings  :  but  if  you  say,  "  Therefore  I  have  peace," 
then  you  are  turning  holy  feelings  mto  grounds  of  trust  and 
confidence.  Our  peace  is  to  come,  not  from  what  we  feel, 
nor  from  our  tears,  nor  our  smiles,  nor  from  our  expe- 
rience, but  from  our  being  justified  by  faith  in  Christ  Jesus ; 
and  therefore  only  we  have  peace  with  God,  through  Jesus 
Christ  our  Lord. 

The  true  peace  that  springs  from  the  source  I  have 
pointed  out  —  and  the  only  source  —  has  certain  character- 
istics also.  I  may  just  notice  here,  as  a  preliminary  remark, 
that  you  will  find  that  a  ripened  saint,  when  he  comes  to  a 
dying  hour,  looks  less  at  what  he  is,  and  what  he  has  done, 
and  what  he  has  been,  than  a  very  young  or  inexperienced 
Christian ;  because  he  has  that  clear  view  of  the  only  Foun- 
tain of  peace  that  he  dare  go  nowhere  else. 

Rutherford,  the  celebrated  Professor  of  Glasgow  Univer- 
sity, —  whose  letters  are  so  beautiful,  and  whose  piety  and 
learning  were  so  great,  —  when  he  came  to  his  death-bed, 
was  asked  what  he  could  rely  on ;  and  he  said,  "  There  is 
but  one  text  in  the  Bible"  —  and  recollect  that  this  was  a 
man  illustrious  for  his  spirituality :  his  life,  his  treasure,  his 
heart  was  in  heaven  —  "  There  is  but  one  text  in  the  Bible 
that  I  dare  lay  stress  on  ;  and,  blessed  be  God !  that  text  is 
so  strong  that  I  can  trust  mine  eternal  life  on  it  — '  Him 
that  Cometh  unto  me,  I  will  in  nowise  cast  out.' "  Justified 
by  faith,  Rutherford  had  thus  peace  v.dth  God  through  Jesus 
Christ. 

But  there  is  a  true  peace.  What  are  the  characteristics 
of  it?  First,  the  peace  that  springs  from  justification  by 
faith  in  Christ  is  a  purely  spiritual  peace.     I  mean  by  this, 


PEACE   WITH   GOD.  2G3 

it  is  the  inspiration  of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  Now  to 
know  whether  any  grace  you  have  be  really  a  divine  and  a 
true  one,  you  may  determine  by  this  criterion :  —  Whatever 
peace,  or  joy,  or  any  other  emotion  in  our  heart  does  not 
reflect  Christ,  and  point  to  Christ  as  its  author,  and  cast 
upon  him  all  the  glory  of  it,  is  not  a  true  Christian  grace. 
If  it  be  implanted  by  the  Holy  vSpirit,  what  will  be  its  ten- 
dency ?  "  The  Spirit  shall  take  of  the  things  of  Christ,  and 
show  them  unto  you ;  "  and  thus  will  glorify,  not  you,  but 
Him.  If,  therefore,  your  peace  be  sacred,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit  be  its  author,  the  necessary  result  of  that  peace  in 
your  heart  will  be,  —  "I  give  all  the  praise,  not  to  my 
l^rayers,  not  to  my  reading,  not  to  my  discharge  of  duty,  not 
to  my  suflering  evil  for  Christ's  sake ;  but  as  this  peace  is 
from  Christ,  to  him  I  give  the  glory.  It  is  a  leaf  from  the 
tree  of  life,  and  he  has  all  the  praise,  and  he  shall  have  all 
the  honor."     This  is  the  evidence  of  true  peace. 

The  i^eace  of  a  Christian  is  an  intelligent  peace.  It  is 
not,  as  some  people  tell  us,  fanaticism,  extravagance.  It  is 
not  feeling  separated  from  the  Bible,  or  rambling  impulse ; 
it  is  connected  with  a  Divine  source.  When  the  Holy 
Spirit  implants  peace  in  a  Christian's  heart,  he  does  it  in 
connection  with  his  own  Word.  Any  feeling  that  you  have 
disunited  from  the  Bible  you  ought  to  doubt  the  origin  and 
nature  of.  The  Spirit  teaches  the  Bible  —  honors  the 
Bible ;  and  whatever  seems  a  grace  in  your  heart,  disunited 
from  the  outward  inspired  Word,  you  may  doubt  its  origin, 
you  may  suspect  its  nature.  But  this  j^eace  is  implanted  by 
the  Spirit  through  the  knowledge  of  Him  whom  the  Bible 
reveals  —  Christ  crucified. 

This  peace,  the  true  spiritual  peace  of  the  Christian,  is 
perfect,  complete.  He  is  kept  in  perfect  peace.  But  the 
most  experienced  Christian  will  say,  "I  have  not  always 
j)eace.  IIow  can  it  be  perfect  peace  ?  "  I  answer.  Its  ebbs 
and  its  flows  are  not  changes  in  the  peace,  but  the  faihng 


264  PEACE    WITH    GOD. 

and  the  faltering  of  your  grasp  of  it.  The  peace  is  perfect, 
but  Ave  possess  it  steadfiist  in  our  hearts  in  the  ratio  of  the 
tenacity  of  our  faith ;  and  wlien  we  have  not  perfect  peace, 
it  is  not  that  Divine  peace  has  failed,  but  that  the  faith  that 
holds  it  on  our  part  has  faltered.  God's  peace  is  in  itself 
absolutely  perfect ;  but  it  is  in  our  experience  relatively  im- 
perfect. But  when  our  peace  is  disturbed,  our  joys  diluted, 
our  sunshine  clouded,  we  are  not  to  say,  "  God's  mercies 
have  failed,"  but.  My  faith  has  faltered ;  and,  "  therefore,  I 
have  not  the  full  enjoyment  of  what  I  otherwise  should 
have." 

This  peace,  as  possessed  by  a  Christian,  is  independent  of 
all  outward  things.  A  Christian  meets  with  storm,  and 
rain,  and  Avind,  and  tempest,  just  like  the  rest  of  mankind. 
He  has  sickness  in  his  frame,  sorrows  and  ills  in  his  home, 
bereavements  in  his  family,  like  the  rest  of  the  world.  The 
world  draAvs  its  peace  from  things  that  are  around  it ;  there- 
fore, Avhen  these  things  fail,  its  peace  goes ;  —  but  a  Chris- 
tian draAvs  his  peace,  not  from  things  that  are  around  him, 
but  from  the  Fountain  of  peace  that  is  above  him;  and, 
therefore,  Avhen  the  fig-tree  ceases  to  give  fruit,  when  there 
is  no  herd  in  the  stall,  when  the  vine  yields  no  blossom,  the 
Christian's  source  of  peace  remains  inexhaustibly  the  same : 
he  rejoices  in  the  Lord,  and  joys  in  the  God  of  his  salva- 
tion. DraAV  your  happiness  from  outAvard  things,  and  you 
will  find  it  the  most  precarious  possession  in  the  Avorld; 
trust  in  your  Avealth,  draw  your  peace  from  your  home, 
your  family,  your  friends  —  from  any  earthly  cistern,  and 
you  stand  in  jeopardy  every  hour :  but  let  your  peace,  your 
joy,  your  happiness,  floAv  from  the  great  Fountain  that  never 
fails,  and  then,  though  the  earth  be  removed,  though  the 
mountains  be  cast  into  the  midst  of  the  sea,  though  the 
waves  thereof  do  roar,  and  though  the  hills  shake  Avith  the 
swelling  thereof,  you  have  a  river,  Avhose  streams  cease- 
lessly flowing  make  glad  the  city  of  our  God;    the  holy 


PEACE    AVITU    GOD.  2G5 

place  of  the  tabernacles  of  the  Most  High.  God  is  in  tlic 
midst  of  her,  therefore  she  shall  not  be  moved.  The  Chris- 
tian's peace  is  an  inner  grace,  drawn  from  a  heavenly  source, 
unaffected  by  outer  thing?,  and,  therefore,  it  ebbs  not  and 
flows  not  with  them.  The  work  of  righteousness  is  peace, 
and  the  effect  of  peace  is  quietness  forever. 

A  Christian's  peace  is  permanent ;  it  lasts  forever.  It  is 
not  overthrown  by  the  things  that  shake  the  foundations  of 
the  world's  peace.  If  subtle  casuistry  carps  at  his  Bible,  if 
powerful  objections  are  launched  against  its  distinctive 
tenets,  if  difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  acceptance  of  the 
truth  are  brought  before  him  that  he  cannot  solve,  a  Chris- 
tian does  not  say.  Therefore  my  hope,  my  peace,  my  joy, 
are  all  gone ;  but  I  am  persuaded  from  the  past  that  what  I 
do  know  in  the  Bible  is  divine ;  and  I  am  sure  it  will  come 
out  in  the  future,  that  what  I  do  not  know  there  is  no  less 
so :  and  he,  therefore,  waits  until  that  time  when  what  he 
knows  not  now  he  shall  know  hereafter.  Many  true  Chris- 
tians I  have  met  with  live  in  fear  of  some  scientific  dis- 
covery, or  in  alarm  at  some  infidel  objection,  or  in  amaze- 
ment at  some  new  phenomenon ;  and  foolishly  enough  they 
begin,  not  to  doubt  their  own  weakness,  but  to  question  their 
religion.  Now,  if  you  have  a  true  apprehension  of  God's 
word,  you  will  not  be  moved,  whatever  obstacles  may  be  in 
tlie  way  of  it.  You  must  not  think  because  you  cannot 
answer  an  objection  to  the  Bible  that  the  objection  is  there- 
fore unanswerable.  A  very  important  thought  to  be  carried 
with  us  is,  Because  I  cannot  answer  this  objection  it  does 
not  follow  that  it  never  has  been  answered,  or  that  it  cannot 
be  answered.  On  the  contrary,  if  you  will  wait  a  little,  you 
will  find  that  all  things  that  seem  to  be  obstructions  to  the 
truth,  are  becoming  part  and  parcel  of  its  glorious  channel ; 
and  all  those  things  that  seem  to  be  difficulties  in  the  way 
of  its  acceptance,  incapable  of  removal,  are  melted  daily 
into  its  majestic  current ;  and,  from  the  depths  of  earth,  and 

23 


2G6  PEACE    WITH    GOD. 

from  the  heights  of  heaven,  from  all  sciences,  and  all  litera- 
ture, and  all  researches,  there  is  emerging  every  day,  Avith 
more  eloquent  emphasis,  "  Thy  word,  O  God,  is  truth." 
Let  not,  therefore,  your  peace  be  disturbed  by  objections  or 
difficulties  that  you  cannot  now  solve,  but  which  have  been 
solved,  or  can  be  solved,  and  will  be  solved  hereafter.  The 
peace  of  a  Christian  is  permanent.  It  survives  all  —  it 
outlives  all ;  it  grows  like  the  oak,  only  stronger  and  more 
deeply  rooted  by  the  storms  that  beat  upon  it,  until  it  is 
transplanted  into  that  better  rest  where  there  is  no  more 
storm,  nor  trial. 

Having  seen,  first,  the  brands  of  spurious  peace,  and,  sec- 
ondly, the  characteristics  of  true  and  Christian  peace,  let 
me  now  allude,  in  the  third  place,  to  the  ground  of  true 
peace  —  namely,  "justified  by  faith,  we  have  peace  with 
God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  To  be  justified, 
means  simply  to  be  acquitted.  The  apostle  has  explained 
it  in  previous  chapters.  To  be  justified,  means  to  be  ac- 
quitted from  the  consequences  of  the  ill  we  have  done,  and 
to  be  admitted  to  the  blessings  and  the  happiness  which,  by 
our  conduct,  we  have  forfeited.  "  Justified  by  faith,"  says 
the  apostle,  "  we  have  peace  with  God."  But  how  justified  ? 
Jesus  became  our  representative.  I  do  not  stop  to  explain 
how  natural,  or  reasonable,  or  probable  this  is.  It  is  the 
fact.  Jesus  became  our  representative ;  he  omitted  nothing 
that  we  owed  —  he  committed  nothing  that  was  sinful.  He 
bore  our  sins  on  his  own  body  —  paid  and  exhausted  the 
penalty.  He  earned  back  the  heaven  we  had  lost  by  his 
righteousness,  and,  believing  on  him,  we  are  justified.  Adam 
siimed ;  we,  his  children,  share  in  his  guilt,  and  are  delivered 
to  its  consequences.  Jesus  bore  Adam's  sin;  and  all  the 
children  of  Adam  that  will  flee  to  Christ,  the  second  Adam, 
escape  the  consequences  of  that  sin.  Adam  forfeited  heaven 
by  his  want  of  original  righteousness ;  and  we,  Adam's  chil- 
dren, have  forfeited  heaven  also.     Jesus  regained  heaven, 


PEACE    WITH    GOD.  267 

by  obeying  the  law  that  Adam  could  not  obey ;  and  we  the 
children  of  the  second  Adam,  believers  in  Christ,  have 
restored  to  us  the  heaven  we  had  forfeited  for  ever.  Thus, 
justified  by  what  Christ  has  done  for  us,  not  by  any  tiling 
done  in  us,  we  have,  says  the  apostle,  peace  with  God  through 
Jesus  Christ. 

But  he  states  here  that  we  are  justified  by  fiiith.  What 
is  meant  by  being  justified  by  faith?  It  is  this.  Faith,  the 
distinctive  grace  of  the  Christian,  lays  hold  upon  that  which 
Christ  has  done,  and  thus  we  are  justified.  The  ground  of 
my  pardon  at  the  judgment-seat  is  not  faith,  any  more  than 
it  is  works.  I  am  not  justified  now  by  orthodoxy  of  belief, 
any  more  than  I  am  justified  by  perfection  of  good  works  or 
good  living.  The  old  ■  formula  was,  "  Do  and  live ; "  the 
formula  now  is,  not  "  Believe  and  live,"  as  if  belief  took  the 
place  of  doing,  and  life  were  the  consequence  of  either,  but 
it  is,  "  Do  and  live,"  and  that  formula  is  still  obligatory. 
"  Do  and  live  ; "  only  when  Adam  heard  it,  he  had  to  do  the 
work,  that  he  might  get  the  wages.  When  Adam's  lost 
family  hear  it,  they  have  to  receive  the  required  righteous- 
ness already  done  by  Christ  for  them,  and  thus  they  get  the 
Avages  ;  but,  in  either  case,  God  demands  a  perfect  righteous- 
ness, or  conformity  to  his  holy  law,  before  he  will  give 
heaven  to  anybody.  In  Adam's  case  it  was,  "  Do  it  per- 
sonally, and  you  will  obtain  it  personally."  In  our  case  it 
is  done  for  us,  and,  because  done  for  us,  not  by  us,  we  obtain 
the  everlasting  rest  that  remaineth  for  the  people  of  God. 
The  greatest  faith  is  not  a  great  salvation,  and  the  least  faith 
is  not  a  little  salvation.  The  greatest  faith,  that  can  remove 
mountains,  has  no  more  salvation  than  we  need;  and  the 
least  faith,  that  trembles  on  the  verge  of  extinction,  has  no 
less  salvation  than  we  actually  require.  Faith,  however,  is 
not  the  bread  ;  it  is  rather  the  mouth  that  eats  it.  It  is  not 
the  brass  serpent,  but  the  eye  that  looks  at  it.  When  a  poor 
beggar  gets  alms,  it  is  not  his  hand  that  he  thanks,  but  the 


268  PEACE    WITH    GOD. 

donor;  and  when  we  exercise  faith,  or,  in  more  common 
language,  trust,  or  confidence  in  God,  we  exercise  a  grace 
that  God  gives ;  —  for  that  faith  is  not  our  OAvn,  it  is  the  gift 
of  God  ;  and  we  are  saved,  not  by  belief,  but  by  Avhat  belief 
clings  to  —  Christ's  finished  sacrifice.  It  is  very  important 
to  understand  this,  because  the  world  objects  to  evangelical 
religion,  alleging  that  all  that  you  want  for  heaven  is  a  cor- 
rect creed ;  and  the  worldling,  unenlightened,  looks  for 
heaven,  thinking  all  that  he  needs  is  a  tolerably  consistent 
life ;  whereas  faith  is  not  illumination  in  the  head,  it  is  not 
even  law  in  the  conscience,  it  is  not  even  love  in  the  heart, 
but  the  trust  of  the  whole  man  on  Christ,  our  only  title  to 
heaven,  the  King  that  governs  us  by  the  law  in  his  own 
•word ;  the  prophet,  that  teaches  us  the  way,  the  truth,  and 
the  life. 

Is  it  true  that  we  were  at  war  with  God  ?  Many  a  benev- 
olent and  amiable  man  shrinks  in  horror  from  the  idea  tliat 
he  ever  was  at  war  with  God ;  but  it  is  true  of  the  most 
amiable  as  well  as  of  the  most  wicked.  The  natural  heart, 
before  it  is  regenerated  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God,  is  not 
only  hostile  to  God,  but  it  is  enmity  to  God.  The  precise 
occurrence  in  providence  may  never  have  overtaken  you 
that  shall  develop  this  latent  enmity  ;  but  God  says  it  is  there, 
and  whether  you  feel  it  or  not,  you  may  depend  upon  it 
that  it  is  so.  Now  then,  he  says,  when  we  are  justified  by 
faith,  persons  that  were  at  war  with  God  shall  have  peace 
with  him.  But,  how  have  we  peace  with  God  ?  We  find 
that  instead  of  asking  us  to  make  an  atonement  which  we 
never  can,  he  invites  us  now  to  accept  pardon  of  all  the  sins 
that  are  past.  We  find  now  that  God  is  not  a  God  hating 
us,  hostile  to  us,  ready  to  destroy  us,  as  the  natural  man 
thinks ;  but  a  God  so  loving  us,  that  he  gave  his  only  be- 
gotten Son,  that  Avhosoever  believeth  on  him  might  not  perish, 
but  have  eternal  life.  Now,  the  natural  man's  conviction, 
and  I  a^^peal  to  your  own  experience,  is,  that  God  is  an 


PExVCE    WITH    GOD.  2G9 

angry  being.  Your  notion  of  religion,  the  first  notion  you 
liad,  was  that  it  was  a  very  awful  thing ;  the  Bible,  a  very 
gloomy  thing ;  and  that  the  minister  of  the  gospel  was  only 
fit  to  precede  the  dead  to  the  grave.  The  notion  that  you 
were  taught  in  the  nursery,  and  that  has  grown  up  with  you 
to  manhood,  is,  that  religion  is  a  gloomy  thing.  And  hence, 
the  man  whose  countenance  has  glowed  with  joy  when  he 
spoke  of  his  family,  of  his  politics,  of  his  wealth,  of  the  world, 
fiills  into  another  key  when  the  subject  that  comes  up  is  re- 
ligion. "Why  this  ?  My  dear  friends,  if  there  be  a  joyful 
thing  upon  earth,  it  is  religion.  If  there  be  a  ground  of  thank- 
fulness upon  earth,  it  is  the  Bible.  If  there  be  a  topic  about 
which  the  heart  should  bound  wiiile  it  feels — if  there  be  a 
subject  which  should  be  spoken  of  in  strains  of  praise,  not  in 
sepulchral  and  gloomy  tones,  it  is  rehgion.  For  what  is  it  ? 
God  is  my  Father,  heaven  is  my  everlasting  home  ;  Christ, 
the  Saviour  of  souls,  is  my  Brother,  my  Priest,  my  King,  my 
Prophet,  my  all ;  God,  instead  of  waiting  to  destroy  me,  waits 
to  bless  me  ;  instead  of  keeping  me  off,  he  bids  me  draw  near ; 
instead  of  my  father's  house  having  prejmrations  to  punish 
me,  the  prodigal,  it  has  preparations  for  a  joyous  festival, 
because  the  lost  is  found,  the  dead  is  alive,  the  prodigal  is 
come  to  himself,  to  his  Father,  and  to  his  God.  Therefore, 
being  justified  by  the  belief,  by  the  faith,  by  the  knowledge 
of  this,  I  have  peace  with  God  in  his  holy  law.  The  mo- 
ment I  find  that  Christ  obeyed  it,  that  he  bore  the  curse,  and 
exhausted  the  penalty,  I  do  not  say  any  more,  as  the  worldly 
man  says,  God's  law  is  too  severe;  his  exactions  are  too 
great ;  we  never  can  do  what  he  requires :  I  discover  that 
God's  law  is  holy,  and  just,  and  good,  and  true ;  and  I  am 
satisfied  with  its  severest  exactions,  because  I  find  that  Christ 
has  fulfilled  it,  and  made  it  honorable  for  me. 

I  have  peace  with  God  as  he  is  revealed  in  creation. 
The  natural  man  thinks  that  the  world  now  is  just  as  God 
23* 


270  PEACE    WITH    GOD. 

made  it.  This  world  is  not  now  as  God  made  it.  No  doubt 
the  traces  of  his  hand,  the  footprints  of  his  presence,  are 
many  and  beautiful;  but  the  marks  of  irruptive  and  de- 
structive elements  are  irresistibly  plain  on  every  side.  God 
did  not  introduce  autumn,  decay,  winter,  plague,  pestilence, 
war,  famine,  death.  These  are  not  God's  children.  God 
surely  did  not  pronounce  these  to  be  very  good,  when  he 
had  finished  this  beautiful  orb.  You  say.  Why  did  he 
permit  them  ?  That  I  cannot  answer ;  but  that  he  did  not 
make  them,  and  send  them  originally  when  he  made  the 
world,  that  the  Bible  does  answer.  But  when  the  natural 
man  looks  at  this  world,  thus  covered  with  the  traces  of 
wrath,  of  sin,  of  disease,  and  of  death,  he  becomes  vexed  and 
irritated.  It  is  inexplicable  to  him ;  he  cannot  understand 
it,  and  comes  naturally  to  the  conclusion  that  the  God  that 
made  it  is  a  wi'athful  being.  But  when  I  discover  Christ, 
the  Saviour,  the  gift  of  His  love ;  when  I  discover  that  the 
earth  was  made  by  God,  holy,  beautiful,  and  good ;  that 
God  raised  a  cross  upon  it,  and  sent  his  Son  to  die  there  in 
order  to  restore  it ;  and  that  my  sin,  not  the  fiat  of  God,  in- 
troduced our  woe,  our  diseases,  our  calamities,  and  our  mis- 
eries, justified  through  Christ  Jesus,  my  atonement,  my 
rigliteousness,  my  all,  I  have  peace  with  God,  as  he  speaks 
from  Sinai  —  peace  with  God  as  he  rides  upon  the  whirl- 
wind or  treads  upon  the  sea  —  peace  with  God  in  creation, 
and  in  revelation  also.  I  have  also  peace  with  God  in  all 
his  providential  dealings.  The  natural  man,  for  instance, 
loses  the  property  to-day  he  had  accumulated  by  the  labor 
of  twenty  years.  If  he  sees  God  at  all  in  the  loss,  he  repines, 
and  murmurs  against  him.  The  parent  loses  the  babe  that 
she  loves,  or  the  home  is  deprived  of  its  chiefest  ornament 
and  glory.  In  that  home  there  are  loud,  repining,  murmur- 
ing complaints  against  the  severity  of  God,  who  has  nipped 
the  blossom  before  it  was  blown,  or  blasted  it  after  it  was  so. 


PEACE    WITH    GOD.  271 

But  a  Cliristian  reasons  thus :  —  Not,  God  liates  rac  because 
he  has  sent  this  suffering ;  but  God  is  my  Father,  therefore 
this  suffering  must  be  working  out  the  peaceable  fruits  of 
rigliteousness.  The  natural  man  reasons,  from  what  he 
suffers,  upward  to  what  God  is.  The  Christian  man  reasons 
from  what  God  is,  down  to  the  character  of  what  he  suffers. 
The  natural  man  says,  I  am  sick,  I  am  poor,  I  am  pained,  I 
am  dying,  therefore  God  hates  me.  The  Christian  says,  God 
is  my  Father,  therefore  sickness  is  chastisement,  not  punish- 
ment ;  losses  and  cares  are  not  penal,  but  paternal ;  and  all 
these  things,  because  God  is  my  Father,  are  working  for 
good  to  me,  his  child. 

I  have  peace  with  all  mankind.  The  Christian  pities 
the  sins,  prays  for  the  souls  of  those  that  are  around 
him.  He  rejoices  in  their  excellences,  and  prays  for 
their  increase,  in  those  that  are  Christians,  along  with 
himself.  As  much  as  lieth  in  him,  he  lives  peaceably  with 
all  men. 

Have  we  any  experience  of  this  peace  ?  Have  we  got 
rid  of  the  false  peaces  that,  like  opiates,  lull,  but  do  not  re- 
move the  pain ;  and  are  we  introduced  into  the  true  peace, 
the  lustre  of  the  shining  star,  that  sets  not  for  ever  and 
ever  ?  Are  we  deriving  the  peace  that  we  feel  in  the  pros- 
pect of  death,  in  the  prospect  of  a  judgment-seat,  in  the 
prospect  of  the  troubles  that  are  coming  in  the  world,  not 
from  something  that  we  are,  or  any  thing  we  have  done,  but 
only  from  this  —  that  Christ  is  our  only  Saviour,  and  that 
we  are  his  redeemed  and  ransomed  ones  ?  If  you  have  not 
this  peace,  pray  for  it.  There  is  not  a  blessing  that  God 
refuses  to  prayer,  and  there  is  not  a  blessing  that  he  has 
promised  to  give  Avithout  it.  I  cannot  explain  why  prayer 
should  move  the  Arm  that  moves  the  universe.  I  only 
know  that  it  is  his  ordinance  ;  and  his  promise  that  if  Ave 
ask  the  greatest  things  through  Christ,  we  shall  olitain 
them.      Pray,  then,  ^hat   he  would  justify  you  freely  by 


272  PEACE    WITH    GOD. 

his  grace,  tliat  lie  would  enable  you  to  trust  implicitly 
on  the  Saviour ;  and,  so  justified,  and  so  trusting,  to 
have  that  peace  that  passeth  understanding,  that  will  keep 
the  heart  and  mind  continually,  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord. 


CHAPTER    VI. 


THE    GROUND    OF   JOT. 


"  And  not  only  so,  but  we  also  joy  in  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
by  whom  we  have  now  received  the  atonement."  — Rojian's  v.  11. 

You  must  have  noticed  that,  in  the  fourth  chapter  of 
Leviticus,  there  occurs  frequently  the  expression,  "  to  make 
an  atonement,"  with  the  victim  or  the  sacrifice  that  is  offered 
by  the  priest  on  behalf  of  the  sinner.  For  instance,  in  the 
twentieth  verse,  we  read  that  the  priest  shall  take  it,  "  and 
make  an  atonement  for  them,  and  it  shall  be  forgiven  them." 
Again,  in  the  thirty-first  verse,  "  And  the  priest  shall  burn 
it  upon  the  altar,  for  a  sweet  savor  unto  the  Lord :  and  the 
priest  shall  make  an  atonement  for  him,  and  it  shall  be  for- 
given him."  And  in  the  last  verse  of  the  same  chapter, 
"  The  priest  shall  make  an  atonement  for  his  sin  that  he 
hath  committed,  and  it  shall  be  forgiven  him."  You  see, 
then,  constantly  repeated  throughout  this  cliapter,  at  the 
close  of  every  sacrifice,  offered  according  to  the  requirement 
of  God,  that  the  object  of  that  offering  or  sacrifice  was  to 
make  an  atonement  for  sin,  or,  as  it  is  otherwise  rendered, 
an  atonement  for  the  sinner. 

All  this,  as  I  have  said  before,  was  purely  ty[)ical. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  sacrifice  of  a  lamb  or  a  bullock 
expiatory  or  atoning,  any  more  than  in  the  presenting  of  a 
few  flowers,  or  the  burning  of  a  little  incense.  It  was, 
however,  the  mode  instituted  by  God  to  foreshadow,  and  to 
lead  the  beholder,  in  Levitical  days,  to  the  Atonement  which 

(273) 


274  THE    GROUND    OF   JOT. 

should  be  made  at  the  end  of  that  dispensation,  and  it,  hav- 
ing been  fuiislied  on  the  cross,  and  having  made  an  end  of 
sin,  we  now  can  say,  what  the  Jew  could  not  say  in  the  days 
of  Levi,  "  AVe  joy  in  God,  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 
by  whom  we  have  now  received  that  which  was  typified  by 
all  the  atonements  of  Aaron,  and  which  gave  to  those  atone- 
ments their  vitality  and  their  virtue  —  the  atonement  made, 
once  for  all,  for  the  sins  of  all  that  believe." 

This  word,  "  atonement,"  does  not  occur  very  frequently 
in  the  New  Testament ;  it  is  often  rendered  by  the  expres- 
sion, perfectly  parallel  in  meaning,  but  different  in  form, 
sometimes  translated  "  reconciliation."  It  is  defined  and 
well  expressed  by  an  apostle,  the  author  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Romans,  who  says,  in  2  Corinthians  v.  19,  "to  wit,"  explain- 
ing the  atonement,  telling  you  what  it  is,  "  to  wit,  that  God 
was  in  Christ,  reconciling  the  world  unto  himself"  —  making 
the  atonement  for  them  —  "not  imputing  their  trespasses 
unto  them,  and  hath  committed  unto  us  the  w^ord  of  recon- 
ciliation," or  the  message  of  the  atonement.  "  Now,  then," 
says  the  apostle,  "  w^e  are  "  —  what  the  priests  of  Levi  were 
not,  in  a  more  full  and  precious  sense  —  "  ambassadors  for 
Christ,  as  though  God  did  beseech  you  by  us ;  we  pray  you, 
in  Christ's  stead,  be  ye  reconciled  to  God "  —  that  means, 
receive  ye  the  atonement ;  for  he  says  —  this  is  the  explana- 
tion of  it  —  God  hath  made  Christ,  who  knew  no  sin,  to  be 
sin  for  us,  to  bear  our  sins  on  his  own  body  on  the  tree,  that 
we  might  be  made  the  righteousness  of  God  by  him.  Thus 
we  sec  the  apostle  explaining,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Corin- 
thians, the  meaning  of  the  expression,  "  atonement,"  as  used 
in  his  Epistle  to  the  Romans.  The  original  has  been  ren- 
dered by  sopie  into  English,  by  the  word  supposed  best  to 
express  its  real  meaning  —  at-one-ment,  because  it  makes 
those  who  were  at  issue  to  be  at  one.  They  think  that  the 
word,  instead  of  being  pronounced  by  us  "  atonement,"  ought 
to  be  more  properly  pronounced,  "  at-one-ment,"  being  that 


THE    GROUND    OF   JOY.  275 

great  truth  whicli  brings  into  unity  those  that  sin  had  rent 
and  severed  ibr  ever,  and  without  whieh  an  earth  all  sin,  and 
a  God  all  holiness,  never  could  have  met  —  the  one  receiv- 
ing glory,  and  the  other  receiving  happiness. 

The  idea  implied  in  the  Atonement  is,  that  there  was  sep- 
aration between  us  and  God  that  needed  to  be  put  an  end  to. 
This  fact  is  expressed  most  plainly  by  God  himself,  when  he 
says,  "  Your  sins  have  separated  between  you  and  me."  Sin 
is  essentially  the  rending  element  in  the  universe.  It  once 
split  earth  from  heaven,  and  would  keep  it  away  from  heaven 
for  ever  if  it  were  not  in  love,  and  mercy,  and  grace,  that 
Christ  reunites  the  broken-ofF  earth  to  the  great  continent 
of  glory,  of  which  it  once  formed  a  part,  and  from  which  sin, 
and  sin  alone,  has  rent  and  separated  it.  But,  thus  separated 
from  God,  we  are  brought  to  be  at  one  by  the  Atonement. 
Man,  however,  could  not  make  the  atonement.  He  was  the 
guilty  party,  without  strength  as  well  as  without  title  and 
without  character ;  and  God,  therefore,  the  oftended  party, 
who  was  under  no  obligation  to  do  it,  but  merely  from  love 
and  mercy,  interposed  a  Great  Sacrifice,  by  which  we  might 
be  reinstated  without  doing  injury  to  his  law,  his  character, 
and  his  government.  "  Him  hath  God  set  forth  to  be  the 
atonement,  or  the  propitiation  for  our  sins."  He  gave  Christ, 
as  an  expression  of  his  love,  a  satisfaction  to  his  justice,  and 
an  atonement  for  our  sins.  And  now,  therefore,  God,  Con- 
sistently with  all  he  has  said,  and  ever  will  say,  and  consis- 
tently with  all  he  is,  and  must  ever  continue  to  be,  can  let 
forth  upon  the  guilty  those  expressions  of  his  love  which  be- 
longed only  to  the  pure,  the  unfallen,  and  the  holy ;  and  re- 
ceive sinners  to  his  bosom,  showing,  in  his  reception  of  the 
sinner,  at  once  his  hatred  to  the  sin  and  his  love  to  the  man, 
and  covered  with  a  richer  glorj^  when  he  does  so,  than  if  this 
earth  had  been  cast  into  hell,  and  all  its  inhabitants  destroyed 
for  ever. 

This  atonement  is  called  by  the  apostle  here  the  atonement ; 


\' 


276  THE    GROUND    OF   JOY. 

ill  contradistinction  to  the  numerous  atonements  made  typi- 
cally by  Levi.  AYe  have  received  now,  not  an  atonement 
needing  to  be  rej^eated  to-day  and  to-morrow,  and  incapable 
of  taking  away  sin,  because  if  it  should  do  that  it  Avould  not 
need  to  be  repeated ;  nor  does  it  teach  that  we  have  to  make 
an  atonement,  or  can  make  it;  —  we  receive  Avhat  has  been 
already  made,  perfect,  complete,  available  for  ever  —  the 
once-for-all  sacrifice  or  atonement  made  for  sins.  In  other 
Avords,  the  atonement  predicted  by  prophets,  promised  by 
God,  foreshadowed  in  the  sacrifices  of  the  Tabernacle  and 
the  Temple,  anticipated  by  pious  patriarchs,  proclaimed  by 
John  the  Baptist,  recorded  by  evangelists,  preached  by  apos- 
tles, believed  in  by  all  true  Christians,  is  the  very  life,  and 
substance,  and  central  truth  of  the  Christian  economy. 

This  atonement,  it  is  said  here,  we  have  received.  How 
have  we  received  it  ?  What  does  the  apostle  mean  by  that 
expression  ?  The  best  and  most  precious  medicine  is  of  no 
value  in  disease  unless  it  be  taken  as  prescribed ;  the  crown 
of  a  kingdom  is  worthless  to  me  unless  it  be  put  in  my  pos- 
session ;  and  the  atonement  may  reconcile  earth  to  heaven, 
and  heaven  to  earth,  but  if  I  be  not  interested  in  it,  for  all 
Ijractical  purposes  it  is  to  me  as  if  it  never  had  been  made, 
except  that  it  may  aggravate  my  condemnation  that  it  was 
oftered  to  me,  and  I  refused  and  rejected  it.  Receiving  the 
atonement  is  just  believing  what  God  says  about  it  —  hiying 
the  stress  and  trust  of  the  soul,  in  its  hopes  of  heaven,  and 
expectancy  of  glory,  upon  it ;  pleading  with  God,  that  we 
k'now  he  loves  us,  that  he  delights  in  mercy,  and  that  now 
there  is  provided  by  his  love,  what  was  devised  by  his  wis- 
dom, a  grand  fact,  a  great  economy  —  the  atonement,  by 
which  he  can  be  a  just  God,  while  he  justifies  the  sinner,  and 
spare  me  in  spite  of  my  sins,  in  accordance  with  his  hiAv, 
showing  at  once  his  reverence  for  law,  and  for  his  own  glory 
also,  when  he  forgives  and  pardons  me,  a  sinner.  To  re- 
ceive the  atonement  is,  therefore,  not  to  bring  something  to 


THE    GROUND    OF    JOY.  277 

it,  but  to  accept  it  as  a  ground  on  wliich  God  can  forgive  ;  to 
accept  the  delineation  of  it  in  the  Bible  as  a  truth  that  God 
has  taught,  and  to  deal  with  God,  sinners  though  we  be,  as 
if  wo  had  what  in  Christ  we  do  have,  welcome  access  into 
his  presence,  notwithstanding  our  sins,  and  pardon  for  them 
whilst  we  obtain  access  to  him,  and  confess  their  miture, 
their  aggravation,  and  their  guilt.  This  is  the  whole  secret 
of  salvation  —  to  treat  God's  word  as  truth,  to  act  upon  it, 
to  take  it  as  reality,  to  venture  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  death,  with  no  other  trust  but  this,  with  no  other  hope  but 
this,  with  no  other  plea  at  a  judgment-seat  but  this,  with  no 
other  hope  of  admission  into  heaven  except  what  springs 
from  this,  —  that  Christ  is  the  great  Saviour,  and  I,  the  chief- 
est  of  sinners,  can  look  to  him,  and  lean  on  him  as  my  Sav- 
iour.    Thus  we  receive  the  atonement. 

Now,  says  the  apostle,  the  result  of  our  receiving  — 
that  is,  believing  or  trusting  in  the  atonement  made  by 
Christ  once  for  all,  the  antitype  of  all  those  recorded  in 
Leviticus  —  is,  that  we  joy  in  God.  Have  you  ever 
noticed  how  frequently  joy  is  spoken  of  in  the  Bible, 
not  as  the  incidental  possession  of  one,  two,  or  three  dis- 
tinguished Christians,  but  as  the  ordinary  level  of  Christian 
life  and  character  ?  For  instance,  we  read,  "  We  rejoice  in 
Christ  Jesus,  and  have  no  confidence  in  the  flesh."  Again, 
"The  God  of  all  peace  fill  you  with  all  joy  in  believing." 
"  The  fruit  of  the  spirit  is  joy."  "  Ye  shall  go  out  with  joy." 
"  These  things  have  I  spoken  unto  you,  that  your  joy  may 
be  full."  The  apostle  says,  "  Rejoice ;  and  again  I  say,  re- 
joice." If  we  look  to  the  precedents  of  illustrious  Chris- 
tians, we  find  joy  to  have  been  not  their  occasional  but 
almost  their  ordinary  possession.  Anna  said,  "  My  heart 
rcjoiceth  in  the  Lord  ; "  David  said,  "  My  soul  shall  rejoice 
in  God ; "  Abraham  saw  Christ's  day  afar  off,  and  leaped 
for  joy ;  and  the  early  Christians  had  such  joy  in  their  hearts 
that  they  took  even  joyfully  the  spoiling  of  their  goods. 
24 


278  THE    GROUND    OF    JOY. 

And  an  apostle  felt  it  to  be  so  real,  that  lie  said,  "  Count  it 
all  joy  when  ye  fall  into  divers  afflictions  and  tribulation  " 
So  that  if  the  Bible  describes  what  is  really  Christian  ch 
acter,  if  it  be  a  jDortrait  of  Christian  experience,  there  ou<. 
to  be  more  joy  in  Christian  hearts  than  generally  is  fou;  . 
there,  more  happiness  in  Christian  experience  than  is  ofte;n 
the  case.  The  apostle  does  not  say  we  may  rejoice,  or 
occasionally  we  have  rejoiced ;  but  he  lays  it  down  as  if  it 
were  the  ordinary  tone  and  feeling  —  "We  joy  in  God 
through  Christ  Jesus,  through  whom  we  have  received  the 
the  atonement."  The  joy  of  the  world  is  extremely  evanes- 
cent, because  it  is  fed  from  incidental,  perishable,  and  un- 
satisfactory things.  The  brightest  joy  that  this  world  has, 
like  Jonah's  gourd,  springs  up  in  a  night,  and  in  a  night  it 
dies.  It  is  an  incidental,  occasional,  and  always  a  perishable 
thing.  I  do  not  say  it  is  sinful  to  rejoice  in  our  friends,  in 
our  acquaintance,  in  our  health,  in  our  prosperity,  in  a  beau- 
tiful day,  in  the  bright  sunshine,  in  the  country,  on  the  sea- 
side ;  there  is  a  joy  that  springs  from  these  things  perfectly 
moral,  and  therefore  in  its  place  truly  proper.  But  there  is 
a  joy  richer  than  all,  which  ought  and  which  must  supersede 
all,  —  the  joy  that  we  have  in  God  through  Jesus  Christ, 
from  what  God  is,  from  what  he  has  given,  from  what  he 
has  promised,  and  from  what  we  may  expect  when  Ave  enter 
into  the  joy  of  our  Lord,  and  are  admitted  to  his  presence, 
where  there  is  fulness  of  joy,  and  pleasures  for  evermore. 
Hence  the  joy  of  a  Christian,  described  here  by  the  apostle, 
is  abundant.  Our  Lord  says  that  he  has  taught  us,  and 
spoken  to  us,  that  our  joy  may  be  full.  The  joy  of  a  Chris- 
tian is  heart-felt  joy.  It  is  not  the  joy  of  the  senses,  or  the 
imagination,  or  the  eye,  or  the  ear,  which  is  all  that  can  be 
said  of  natural  joy  ;  but  it  is  the  joy  of  the  heart ;  —  your 
hearts  shall  rejoice.  And  it  is  a  joy,  too,  so  deep  and  real, 
that,  unlike  earthly  joys,  it  is  not  dependent  on  any  shape  or 
sense.     If  our  water  is  drawn  from  a  spring,  that  water  is 


THK    GROUND  OF   JOY.  279 

abundant  or  it  fails  according-  as  tlie  spring  is  ;  but  when 
is  drawn  from  an  inexhaustible  source,  it  lasts  for  ever, 
he  joys  of  this  world  evaporate,  and  are  dried  up  when  they 
>e  most  wanted  ;  but  the  joy  of  a  Christain  is  very  mucli  like 
ne  of  the  springs  that  are  found  amid  the  Alpine  glaciers  — 
tney  are  not  frozen  in  winter ;  and  in  summer,  when  other 
springs  are  dried  up,  they  How  fastest  and  yield  the  most 
abundant  supply.  So  the  Christian's  joy,  drawn  from  an  in- 
exhaustible source,  is  permanent,  and  outlives  those  things 
that  extinguish  the  natural  man's  joy.  Hence  that  beautiful 
passage,  never  too  often  quoted,  —  "Although  the  fig-tree 
shall  not  blossom,  neither  shall  fruit  be  in  the  vines;  the 
labor  of  the  olive  shall  fail,  and  the  fields  shall  yield  no  meat ; 
the  flock  shall  be  cut  off  from  the  fold,  and  there  shall  be  no 
herd  in  the  stalls ;  yet  I  will  rejoice  in  the  Lord,  I  will  joy 
in  the  God  of  my  salvation."  In  other  words,  the  prophet 
says,  in  a  darker  and  cloudier  dispensation,  that  the  joy  that 
he  had  was  so  deep,  so  cordial,  so  little  dependent  upon 
earthly  springs,  that  when  all  those  springs  shall  be  dried  up, 
and  every  thing  that  he  has  shall  disappear,  he  shall  have 
left  that  which  the  world  cannot  take,  as  it  could  not  give, — 
joy  in  the  God  of  his  salvation.  The  Psalmist  said  very 
beautifully,  —  "  Oh  send  forth  thy  light  and  thy  truth.  Then 
will  I  go  to  the  altar  of  God."  If  he  had  stopped  there,  he 
would  have  been  a  mere  cercmonialist,  a  tractarian,  or  a 
Romanist ;  but  he  adds,  —  "  I  will  go  to  the  altar  of  God  — 
to  God  my  exceeding  joy  "  —  the  altar,  a  step  towards  Him 
who  was  the  end  of  the  altar  in  that  dispensation.  A  Chris- 
tian joys,  then,  in  God  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost.  He  joys  in  the  Father,  because  he  is  his  Father ; 
we  joy  in  Christ  Jesus,  says  the  apostle,  as  our  Saviour ; 
and  we  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost,  for  the  kingdom  of  God  is 
righteousness,  peace,  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  We  joy 
in  his  love  that  has  come  forth  on  its  holy  and  beautiful  em- 
bassy to  save  us;  we  joy  in  his  holiness  and  justice,  which, 


280  THE    GROUND    OP   JOY. 

instead  of  being  against  us,  as  they  would  have  been,  if  there 
had  been  no  atonement,  are  now  for  us  ;  for  he  is  faithful 
and  just  to  forgive  us  through  Christ,  the  atonement.  We 
joy  in  God's  providential  government,  because  we  feel  that 
our  Father  not  only  made  all  but  rules  all.  And,  whatever, 
therefore,  betides  a  Christian,  he  believes  to  be  a  missionary 
from  God  ;  and  that  all  things,  however  they  feel  or  look  al 
the  moment,  really  and  truly  are  working  for  good  to  them 
that  love  God,  and  are  the  called  according  to  his  purpose. 

Thus  a  Christian  joys  in  God's  character,  as  revealed  in 
Christ ;  he  joys  in  God's  providential  government,  feeling 
that  nothing  can  separate  him  from  God,  and  that  all  things, 
under  God's  touch  and  impulse,  work  for  his  good,  and  di- 
rectly, or  indirectly,  prove  to  us  mercy,  blessings,  and  bene- 
fits. He  rejoices  in  God  also,  not  only  from  what  God  is, 
but  also  from  what  God  has  done  and  will  do.  Because  our 
sins  are  pardoned,  for  we  have  remission  through  his  blood, 
even  the  forgiveness  of  sin,  we  joy  in  God,  through  Jesus 
Christ,  by  whom  we  have  received  the  atonement.  We  joy 
in  God,  through  Christ's  atonement,  because  thereby  the 
Holy  Spirit  is  given  to  every  true  Christian  to  enhghten 
him,  to  sanctify  him,  to  comfort  him,  and  so  to  apply  to 
his  heart  the  joy  of  God,  that  that  joy  shall  be  to  him 
actual. 

We  joy  in  God,  through  Christ's  Atonement,  because 
thereby  death  is  destroyed ;  the  sting  of  death  is  taken 
away.  In  a  Christian's  case  death  does  not  cease  to  have 
being;  the  soul  of  a  believer  parts  from  its  earthly  tene- 
ment just  as  does  the  soul  of  an  unbeliever ;  but  you  know 
that  the  same  outward  fact  may  have  very  different  aspects 
to  different  persons.  The  pillar  of  cloud  and  of  fire,  when 
it  seemed  all  brightness  to  Israel,  was  all  blackness  to  Egypt 
that  was  behind :  and  so  death  may  be  all  blackness  to  the 
unconverted  man,  and  yet  all  briglitness  to  the  Christian. 
The  same   outward  fact,  therefore,  may  present  itself  in 


THE    GROUND    OF   JOY.  281 

different  aspects  to  different  men,  according  to  the  character 
and  spiritual  condition  of  these  in  the  siglit  of  a  holy  God. 
Now,  to  a  Christian,  death  has  lost  his  bitterest  element. 
There  is  the  pain  of  sickness,  there  is  the  agony  of  dying; 
but,  in  a  Christian's  conviction  and  experience,  there  is  not 
in  death  the  sting,  because  sin  is  pardoned  and  put  away ; 
and  death,  therefore,  is  but  the  uncoiling  and  the  unwinding 
of  life,  the  summons  to  the  soul  to  leave  its  tenement  of 
clay,  and  move  to  everlasting  refreshment ;  to  his  body  the 
repose  in  the  dust  till  the  resurrection  morn,  to  his  soul 
instant  and  blessed  entrance  into  glory. 

And  we  joy  in  God,  through  Christ's  atonement,  because 
thereby  the  way  to  heaven  is  revealed  to  us,  —  the  future  is 
also  revealed  to  us.  Eternity  is  not  now  an  undiscovered 
and  an  unknown  land.  If  it  were  so,  we  should  dread  it. 
Man  is  prone  to  fear  what  he  does  not  know.  The  thorough 
knowledge  of  a  thing  is  almost  alone  sufficient  to  dissipate 
fear.  Let  the  disease  that  attacks  you,  let  the  epidemic 
that  overtakes  you,  be  dreadful  in  its  character  as  it  may  — 
the  thorough  comprehension  of  it  is  the  dispersion  of  all 
fear  about  it.  So,  in  reference  to  eternity ;  as  long  as  it  is 
an  unknown  land,  so  long  it  is  fearful;  but,  when  it  is 
thrown  open,  irradiated  by  the  Sun  of  Righteousness  — 
when  we  see  the  land,  that  is  afar  off,  lying  in  the  light  of 
the  King  whom  we  see  in  his  beauty,  to  use  the  words  of 
Isaiah,  our  fears  are  scattered,  we  perceive  that  it  is  our 
home,  that  our  Elder  Brother  is  there,  that  our  nearest  rela- 
tives wait  to  welcome  us,  and  we  strike  the  tent  in  the 
desert,  and  take  our  march  to  the  better  land,  not  as  to  a 
strange  place  and  a  foreign  people,  but  to  our  home,  where 
our  Father,  our  friends,  and  our  brethren  are. 

And  lastly,  we  joy  in  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ, 

because  we  not  only  know  what  heaven  is,  but  also  the  way 

to  it.     If  any  one  should  say,  with  Thomas  of  old,  "Lord, 

show  us  the  way,"  —  we  know  not  whither  thou  goest,  and 

24* 


282  THE    GROUND    OF   JOY. 

how  can  we  know  the  way?  —  the  answer  to  such  is  just 
what  it  was  to  Thomas ;  and  it  ought  to  be  as  entire  satis- 
faction to  us  as  it  was  to  him  —  "I  am  the  way,  tlie  truth, 
and  tlie  life  ;  no  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  me." 
By  that  atonement  we  have  opened  up  to  us  that  way ;  and, 
therefore,  an  apostle  says,  "  Having  therefore,  brethren, 
boldness  to  enter  into  the  holiest  by  the  blood  of  Jesus,"  — 
that  is,  the  atonement  —  "by  a  new  and  living  w^ay,  which 
he  hath  consecrated  for  us  through  the  vail,"  —  which  he 
hath  rent,  and  so  laid  open  a  heavenly  and  a  better  land,  — 
"  which  he  hath  consecrated  for  us  through  the  vail,  that  is 
to  say,  his  flesh.  And  having  an  high-priest  over  the  house 
of  God,  let  us  draw  near  with  a  true  heart  in  full  assurance 
of  faith,  having  our  hearts  sprinkled  from  an  evil  con- 
science." Let  us  "joy  in  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  by  whom  we  have  now  received  the  atonement." 

Let  us,  therefore,  regard  Christianity  not  as  a  religion  of 
gloom,  but  of  joy  ;  not  as  sepulchral  in  its  aspect,  and  sorrow- 
ful in  its  tones,  but  as  bright,  radiant,  full  of  hope,  fitted  to 
cheer,  to  animate,  and  to  delight.  The  clouds  of  despair  and 
darkness  may  still  rest  around  Mount  Sinai,  but  about  the 
Cross  ail  is  brightness,  because  all  is  jDcace.  Therefore  "  we 
joy  in  God  through  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  we 
have  now  received  the  atonement."  And,  if  we  ourselves 
have  received  it,  we  have  tasted  something  of  its  joy,  though 
we  may  constitutionally  differ  from  each  other.  One  man 
is  more  susceptible,  more  sensitive  than  another.  One  can 
weep  when  another  cannot ;  we  have  different  constitutional 
sympathies :  yet  if  our  joy  be  not  an  overflowing  passion,  it 
will  be  a  steadfast,  i3ermanent  principle.  If  it  be  not,  as  it 
is  in  some,  bright  sunshine,  it  will  be  at  least  j^lain  daylight. 
If  we  be  Christians,  we  must  have  some  experience  of,  and 
some  acquaintance  with,  that  joy  with  which  a  stranger  can- 
not intermeddle.  If  we  have  received  this  joy,  let  us  seek 
to  spread  it.    It  is  the  law  of  good  news  that  we  cannot  keep 


THE    GROUND    OF   JOY.  283 

it  to  ourselves  ;  if  it  be  that  wliicli  will  benefit  others,  by  a 
law  of  our  nature  we  shall  make  it  known.  Have  we  learned 
that  there  is  an  Atonement,  that  we  may  receive  —  not  pay 
for,  or  toil  for,  but  receive  ?  Are  ^ve  resting  on  it  ?  If  we 
are  not,  how  shall  we  escape  if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation, 
so  freely  offered,  so  available  to  all  ?  If  we  have  received 
it,  let  us  tell  others  of  it,  directly  or  indirectly  —  by  word,  or 
by  tract,  or  by  Bible,  or  by  life  —  in  any  way  we  like :  but 
let  us  try,  according  to  our  means,  or  measure,  or  talent,  or 
temperament,  to  let  others  know  that  Christianity  is  our  hap- 
piness on  earth,  and  the  dawn,  even  before  time  closes,  of 
that  full  joy  Avhich  shines  without  a  cloud  and  without  sus- 
pension, in  the  better  land  for  ever  and  ever. 


CHAPTER    VII, 


THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING. 


"  I  beseech  you  therefore  brethren,  by  the  mercies  of  God,  that  ye  present 
your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  acceptable  unto  God,  which  is  your 
reasonable  service." — Komans  xii.  1. 

We  have  seen,  in  the  second  chapter  of  Leviticus  which 
we  have  read,  the  prescribed  offerings  that  were  to  follow  the 
propitiatory  sacrifices.  We  have  seen  that  these,  in  some 
degree,  represented  and  set  forth  the  spiritual  and  eucharistic 
sacrifices  that  all  believers  are  to  make.  AYe  have  in  this 
verse,  in  the  prescriptions  of  the  apostle,  a  definition  and 
description  of  those  sacrifices,  as  first  and  chiefest,  the  living 
man,  surrendered  to  God  that  made  and  redeemed  him,  a 
living  sacrifice,  rational,  intelligent,  and  spiritual ;  and  this 
proclaimed  to  be  now,  in  opposition  to  the  offerings  once 
given,  an  acceptable  sacrifice  to  God. 

You  will  notice,  first  of  all,  that  the  apostle  does  not  enjoin 
this  by  the  force  of  apostolical  authority.  He  might  have 
said,  "I  command  you  to  do  so;"  he  might  have  said, 
"Present  your  bodies;"  but  he  does  not  do  so.  Every 
sacrifice,  as  we  shall  see  by  and  by,  must  be  voluntary.  He 
therefore  beseeches  not  commands,  —  "I  beseech  you  by 
the  mercies  of  God."  He  speaks  as  a  father  to  his  children, 
as  a  friend  to  his  friends,  as  a  teacher  to  his  pupils ;  ever 
feeling,  what  we  need  also  to  feel,  that  never  is  authority 

(284) 


THE    CnmSTIAN    OFFERING.  285 

SO  impressive  as  when  clothed  in  love ;  and  never  does  a 
command  so  deeply  strike  the  heart  as  when  it  comes  from 
a  heart  that  truly  loves. 

He  beseeches  them,  not  by  the  authority  of  Christ, 
though  he  might  have  done  so ;  but  "  by  the  mercies  of 
God."  He  takes  his  stand  not  on  Sinai,  but  on  Calvary ; 
he  makes  the  fulcrum  of  his  appeal  not  legal,  but  evangeli- 
cal ground.  He  who  thinks  that  God  is  an  ever  exacting 
Master,  will  give  him  reluctant  and  very  imperfect  service ; 
but  he  who  looks  upon  God  as  exacting  nothing,  but  giving 
all,  will  present  to  him  his  body  a  living  sacrifice,  his  reason- 
able and  his  acceptable  service.  Think  less  of  God  as  com- 
manding, more  of  God  as  bestowing ;  and  by  a  law  that  has 
its  explanation  in  our  nature,  you  will  serve  him  most.  It 
is  not  a  slave  that  hears  a  tyrant  commanding  that  gives 
him  his  best  service ;  it  is  a  son  that  listens  to  a  father's  re- 
quest that  yields  the  most  beneficent  and  joyous  offering. 

But,  it  may  be  asked,  what  are  these  mercies  ?  It  is  a 
singular  fact,  that  the  Hebrew  word  rendered  so  generally 
"  mercy,"  has  usually  no  singular  number  —  it  is  generally  in 
the  plural ;  as  if  one  could  not  have  one  mercy  without  hav- 
ing innumerable  mercies  in  its  train.  But  wdiat  is  mercy  ? 
It  is  love  in  contact  with  sin.  If  there  had  been  no  sin,  we 
never  had  known  what  mercy  is.  Love  lights  upon  the  un- 
fallen  ;  love,  refracted  into  mercy,  lights  upon  those  who  are 
the  victims  of  sin.  And  how  shall  we  enumerate  God's 
mercies  ?  Pardoning  mercies,  sanctifying  mercies,  preserv- 
ing mercies,  comforting  mercies,  redeeming  mercies  :  mercies 
in  creation,  mercies  in  providence,  mercies  in  redemption. 
"Who  does  not  feel  that  all  his  paths,  from  infancy  till  now, 
have  been  paved  with  mercies ;  that  the  bitterest  cup  he  has 
drank,  in  his  bitterest  moments,  had  in  it  sweeter  mercies  than 
he  ever  deserved  ?  Our  mercies,  if  we  had  eyes  to  see,  are 
like  the  stars  of  the  sky  in  their  number  and  in  their  bril- 
liancy ;  hke  the  flowers  of  the  earth  in  their  fragrance  and 


286  THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING. 

their  beauty ;  unexpected,  often  unasked,  always  and  every- 
where undeserved.  That  man  is  bhnd  that  cannot  see  liis 
mercies ;  he  is  insensible,  indeed,  who  does  not  feel  them ; 
and  he  will  not  be  a  long  possessor  of  them,  or  long  enjoy 
them,  who  does  not  give  to  God  what  he  deserves  —  a  tribute 
of  thanksgiving  and  praise  for  his  possession  of  them.  I 
know  not  a  more  beautiful  recapitulation  of  mercies  than  the 
very  first  hymn  that  we  have  often  sung :  — 

"  When  all  Thy  mercies,  0  my  God, 
My  i-ising  soul  surveys ; 
Transported  with  the  view,  I  'm  lost 
In  wonder,  love,  and  praise. 

"  Oh !  how  shall  words,  with  equal  warmth, 
My  gratitude  declare ; 
That  glows  within  my  ravish'd  heart ! 
But  Thou  canst  read  it  there. 

"  Thy  providence  my  life  sustain'd, 
And  all  my  wants  redress'd ; 
When  in  the  silent  womb  I  lay, 
And  hung  upon  the  breast. 

"  To  all  my  weak  complaints  and  cries, 
Thy  mercy  lent  an  ear. 
Ere  yet  my  feeble  thoughts  had  learn'd 
To  form  themselves  in  prayer. 

"  Unnumber'd  comforts  to  my  soul 
Thy  tender  care  bestow'd, 
,  Before  my  inftmt  heart  conceived 

From  whom  those  comforts  flow'd. 

"  When  in  the  slippery  paths  of  youdi, 
With  heedless  steps,  I  ran  ; 
Thine  arm,  unseen,  conveyed  me  safe, 
And  led  me  up  to  man. 

"  Through  hidden  dangers,  toils,  and  deaths, 
It  gently  clcar'd  my  way ;  * 


THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING.  287 

And  through  tiic  pleasing  snares  of  vice, 
More  to  be  fear'd  than  they. 

"  When  worn  witli  sickness,  oft  hast  thou 
"With  health  rcncw'd  my  face  ; 
And  when  in  sins  and  sorrows  sunk, 
Kcvived  my  soul  with  grace. 

"  Thy  bounteous  hand  with  worldly  bliss 
Hath  made  my  cup  run  o'er  ; 
And,  in  a  kind  and  faithful  friend, 
Hath  doubled  all  my  store. 

"  Ten  thousand  thousand  precious  gifts 
My  daily  thanks  employ ; 
Nor  is  the  least  a  cheerful  heart, 
That  tastes  these  gifts  with  joy." 

"  I  beseocli  you,  therefore,  by  these,  the  mercies  of  God, 
that  ye  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacrifice,  holy,  accept- 
able unto  God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service." 

But  not  only  does  Paul  allude  to  the  mercies  of  God,  but 
he  uses  also  a  preposition  of  great  significance.  He  says : 
"  I  beseech  you,  therefore"  "  Therefore "  is  illative,  or  in- 
ferential ;  it  denotes  something  that  he  had  said  before,  on 
the  ground  of  which  he  urges  this  duty.  So  that  my  text 
is  what  mathematicians  call  "  a  corollary,"  drawn  from  a 
theorem,  or  a  proposition  previously  established.  But  what 
has  he  been  establishing  here  ?  He  has  been  laying  down 
all  the  doctrines  of  grace ;  and  he  argues  that,  because  these 
truths  are  revealed  and  inspired  by  God,  therefore,  instead 
of  living  m  disregard  of  all  the  moral  duties  of  the  law,  you 
are  constrained,  by  an  impulse  the  more  powerful,  because 
it  is  grace,  to  present  your  bodies  living  sacrifices  to  God. 
What  are  the  truths  that  Paul  has  previously  established, 
not  only  with  irresistible  reasoning,  but  under  the  inspiration 
of  the  Spirit  of  God  ?  In  a  previous  part  he  has  shown, 
that  there  is  no  condemnation  in  heaven  or  in  earth,  from 


288  THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING. 

law  or  Gospel,  to  them  that  are  in  Christ  Jesus.  He  has 
shown,  in  the  next  place,  that  the  righteousness  of  Christ  is 
unto  all,  and  upon  all  that  believe  ;  their  only  justification  in 
God's  sight.  He  has  shown,  in  the  next  place,  the  election 
of  God ;  that  it  is  not  of  him  that  walketh,  or  of  him  that 
runneth,  but  of  God.  The  previous  chapter  —  the  eleventh 
—  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  is  the  strongest  declaration 
of  what  we  call  the  doctrine  of  election  —  what  is  sometimes 
called  divine  predestination,  but  which  really  is,  when  ex- 
plained, what  it  is  called  more  frequently  in  the  Bible,  the 
doctrine  of  grace,  of  sovereign  grace.  The  common  notion 
of  persons  that  do  not  know  the  Gospel,  is  that  God  has  pre- 
destinated some  men  to  eternal  hell,  and  other  men  to  eter- 
nal heaven.  That  is  not  the  language  of  the  Bible.  I  have 
stated  before  my  belief  that  God  has  predestinated  nobody 
to  hell.  I  do  not  believe  that  God  drives  any  man  to  hell ; 
I  believe,  on  the  contrary,  that  God  has  so  loved  the  world, 
that  he  gave  his  only  begotten  Son,  that  ivhosoever  believetli 
on  him  may  not  perish,  but  have  eternal  life ;  and  if  any  are 
lost  in  everlasting  ruin,  the  reason  of  their  loss  is  not  in  God, 
but  wholly  in  themselves.  I  have  often  quoted  the  passage, 
and  it  is  one  that  needs  to  be  often  quoted,  because  impor- 
tant :  —  "  Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the  king- 
dom "  —  inherit,  relationship  —  "  the  kingdom  prepared  for 
you  "  —  prepared  for  you  —  "  from  the  foundation  of  the 
world."  But  how  different  is  his  lanc^uage  to  the  lost :  "  De- 
part  from  me,  ye  cursed,  into  everlasting  "  —  not  "  Depart 
from  me,  inherit,"  but  "Depart  from  me  ye  cursed,  into  ever- 
lasting fire,  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels "  —  not 
meant  for  you,  not  designed  for  you,  not  got  ready  for  you, 
but  prepared  for  the  devil  and  his  angels.  The  contrast  be- 
tween these  two  is  most  instructive  :  the  one  is,  "  Come, 
ye  blessed  of  my  Father ; "  the  opposite  is,  not  "  Depart,  ye 
cursed  of  my  Father,"  but  "  Depart,  ye  cursed."  "  Come,  ye 
blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit ;  "  the  other  is,  "  Depart,  ye 


THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING.  289 

cursed  "  —  not  "  inlierit,"  but  "  Depart,  ye  cursed  "  —  go  on 
as  you  have  been  going ;  go  on  in  the  course  you  have  taken 
upon  earth,  and  continue  it  for  ever  and  for  ever.  The  one 
is,  "inherit  the  kingdom"  —  the  palace  of  kings  and  of 
priests ;  the  other  is,  "  everlasting  fire  "  —  everlasting,  in  spite 
of  all  the  criticisms  put  upon  the  word.  It  is  utterly  impos- 
sible for  any  enhghtened  biblical  scholar  —  with  all  respect 
for  Professor  Maurice  —  to  come  to  any  other  conclusion 
than  this :  that  if  heaven  be  everlasting,  and  not  a  transient 
rest,  hell  is  everlasting,  and  not  a  temporary  purgatory.  I 
cannot  come  to  any  other  conclusion ;  and  I  do  think  that 
the  learned  professor  would  have  done  far  greater  service  if 
instead  of  trying  to  explain  away  the  misery  of  the  lost,  he 
had  tried  to  show  how  welcome,  how  free,  how  open  to  every 
soul  under  heaven,  are  all  the  glories  and  the  privileges  of 
the  blessed.  If  any  soul  perish,  the  strength  of  our  appeal 
is  in  this,  that  it  perishes  a  suicide.  There  are  none  but 
suicides  in  hell  —  that  is,  men  self-slain.  I  know  the  diffi- 
culty in  believing  this  —  I  know  how  we  ministers  often  put 
obstructions  in  your  way,  instead  of  making  plain  the  i^ath 
of  the  Lord,  by  metaphysical  questions,  whilst  Ave  ought 
simply  to  state,  as  the  Bible  plainly  tells  us,  that  there  is  no 
decree  in  the  past,  or  in  the  present,  between  one  soul  and 
Christ  Jesus  this  moment ;  that  there  is  nothing  to  prevent 
every  sinner  in  this  assembly — the  oldest,  the  worst,  and 
the  vilest  —  from  having  perfect  peace,  through  the  blood 
of  sprinkling,  without  money,  and  without  price,  and  without 
delay,  this  very  day.  It  is  the  very  goodness  of  the  offer 
that  makes  men  think  it  too  good  to  be  true  —  it  is  the  very 
simplicity  of  the  Gospel  that  makes  men  hesitate  to  close 
with  the  glorious  offers,  and  find,  what  they  may  now  find  — 
perfect  peace,  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 

"We  are  sure,  however,  that  there  is  an  election  to  heaven, 
or,  in  other  words,  we  believe  in  the  sovereignty  of  God's 
grace.     Every  soul  that  is  saved  feels  that,  before  he  came 

25 


290  THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING. 

to  God,  God  drew  him  to  him ;  that  God  spoke  to  him  be- 
fore he  rephed ;  that  the  first  impulse  that  leads  him  to 
heaven  was  communicated  by  God,  often  when  he  has  sought 
it  not,  often  when  he  expected  it  not,  and  always  when  he 
deserved  it  not.  Well,  grant  me  that  God  first  draws  me 
to  follow  him,  without  my  wishing  to  do  so  first,  and  I  do 
not  care  whether  you  say  that  God  purposed  to  do  so  mill- 
ions of  years  ago,  or  whether  he  purposed  to  do  so  five  min- 
utes ago  —  it  is  all  the  same  thing,  because  it  is  sovereign 
on  God's  part.  Grant  me,  based  on  this,  that  I  can  deserve 
nothing,  that  I  can  purchase  nothing,  that  I  can  do  nothing, 
and  that  God  must  do  all,  or  I  am  lost,  and  you  withhold 
from  me  predestination  or  election  as  a  word,  but  you  have 
given  me  all  that  that  word  really  contains. 

Now  the  whole  of  the  11th  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Eomans  is  an  mifolding  of  the  doctrine  of  election.  Some 
men  would  say.  If  we  are  elected  to  heaven,  then  we  may 
live  as  we  like.  But  the  answer  of  the  apostle  is,  Because 
you  are  chosen  to  heaven,  therefore  present  your  bodies 
living  sacrifices,  which  is  your  reasonable  service.  Because 
you  are  not  justified  by  any  thing  you  can  do,  because  you 
are  not  sanctified  by  yourselves,  but  by  the  Spirit  of  God, 
therefore  do  jnstly,  love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly  with  your 
God.  In  other  words,  the  very  truths  which  the  world 
thinks  open  the  floodgates  of  all  licentiousness,  are  those 
Avhich  the  apostle  says  constrain  to  whatsoever  things  are 
pure,  whatsoever  things  are  just,  whatsoever  things  are  hon- 
est, and  lovely,  and  of  good  report.  And  let  me  add,  too, 
that  election,  as  stated  in  the  Bible,  is  neither  stated  as  it  is 
in  the  17th  Article  of  the  Church  of  England,  or  as  it  is  in 
our  Confession  of  Faith.  In  both  of  these  documents  it  is 
defined  too  much  as  a  hard,  dry,  theological  dogma.  It  is 
like  a  flower  preserved  between  the  leaves  of  a  book  —  very 
beautiful,  but  very  withered,  and  very  dry.  But  in  the 
Bible,  it  is  presented  in  all  its  freshness,  not  as  a  mere  dogma, 


THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING.  291 

but  elofliocl  in  the  beauty,  and  tlie  interest  of  a  living  reality. 
Tiie  man  whose  heart  is  not  changed  by  the  S[)irit  of  God, 
may  talk  about  election  as  long  as  he  will,  but  he  talks  about 
something  he  does  not  possess  ;  and  the  man  who  does  not 
believe  the  truth  may  talk  about  predestination  as  long  as 
he  will,  but  he  has  no  lot  or  interest  in  Christ's  reconcil- 
iation. If  you  will  take  care  that  you  elect  Christ  as  your 
only  Saviour,  —  we  can  guarantee  you  that  he  has  elected 
you  to  be  the  heirs  of  his  glory,  —  make  yourselves  sure  of 
the  lower  evidence,  and  you  need  not  be  afraid  of  the  higher 
result.  Do  not  try  to  look  into  God's  hidden  book  in  heaven, 
to  find  your  name  there  ;  but  look  into  God's  revealed  book 
upon  earth,  and  see  what  your  character  is  there  ;  and  if 
you  find  that  it  agrees  with  what  is  there ;  you  may  be  sure 
that  your  names  are  w^'itten  in  the  Lamb's  Book  of  Life. 
It  is  a  most  precious  and  interesting  truth,  that  all  the  doc- 
trines of  grace  are  represented  by  the  apostle  as  leading,  — 
not  as  the  world  would  say,  to  the  practice  of  evil,  but  to  the 
practice  and  to  the  preference  of  what  is  good.  "  Therefore," 
he  says  —  "  therefore,  because  these  truths  have  been  re- 
vealed :  because  you  are  chosen  in  Christ  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world,  because  you  are  justified  by  his  righteousness 
alone,  because  you  are  the  sons  of  God,  and  if  sons,  heirs  of 
God  and  joint-heirs  with  Christ ;  because  you  are  the  inmates 
of  the  kingdom  of  heaven,  therefore,  on  this  very  ground, 
"  present  your  bodies,  work  out  your  salvation  with  fear  and 
trembling."  "  It  is  God  that  worketh  in  you  ; "  but  because 
God  has  thus  vouchsafed  his  grace,  and  given  you  full,  free, 
and  irrevocable  pardon  through  his  own  mercy  in  Christ 
Jesus,  present  your  bodies  living  sacrifices  to  GoJ,  '-your 
bodies" — the  language  is  Levitical:  it  is  plainly  Aaronitic 
and  sacrificial.  It  is  equivalent  to  saying.  Present  all  you 
are,  all  that  you  have,  all  you  possess,  a  living  sacrifice,  ac- 
ceptable to  God.  And  when  the  sacrifice  was  presented  by 
an  ofterer  of  old,  the  very  first  idea  of  it  was  renuuciation 


292  THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING. 

of  all  right  to  it ;  when  he  liad  laid  it  upon  the  altar  he  gave 
up  the  whole  of*  his  interest  in  it :  it  was  transferred  com- 
pletely. And  when  you,  therefore,  present  your  bodies  to 
God,  you  give  up  your  own  interest  in  them  ;  you  cease  to 
care  about  them  in  the  sense  of  carking  care ;  you  cease  to 
be  anxious  to  provide  for  them ;  you  have  committed  them 
to  God  to  be  dedicated  to  his  glory,  to  be  taken  care  of  in  his 
providence,  and  when  deposited  in  the  dust  to  be  watched 
over  by  his  omnipresence,  till  fit  to  be  companions  for  the 
glorified  and  immortal  souls.  Your  feet  are  to  walk  in  his 
ways,  your  hands  to  fight  the  good  fight,  your  ears  to  listen 
to  his  word,  your  hearts  to  love  him,  your  intellects  to  study 
his  character ;  all  your  faculties,  however  gifted,  to  minister 
to  him ;  all  your  affections,  however  dear,  to  cluster  round 
his  throne  ;  v»'hatever  you  are,  and  have,  and  feel,  and  enjoy, 
to  be  consecrated  to  Him  who  has  redeemed  you  by  his  blood, 
and  made  you  sons  and  heirs  of  his  glory. 

It  was  to  be  a  voluntary  offering.  No  sort  of  sacrifice  in 
ancient  days  was  of  any  worth  unless  it  was  voluntary.  And 
you  recollect  when  we  read  of  the  erection  of  the  Tabernacle, 
how  strongly  it  was  insisted  upon  by  Moses  that  every 
offering  that  was  made  should  be  purely  a  voluntary  offering. 
And  by  the  teaching  of  the  apostle,  you  are  still  to  present 
your  bodies.  The  spontaneity  of  the  act  is  part  of  its  essen- 
tial excellence.  Hand-work,  however  beautiful,  never  can 
take  the  place  of  heart-work.  What  you  do,  whether  in  word 
or  in  deed,  you  are  to  do  all  to  the  glory  of  the  Lord. 

But  you  are  to  present  this  body  of  yours,  we  are  told, 
a  living  sacrifice.  There  were  two  kinds  of  sacrifices. 
First,  —  animal  sacrifices,  as  recorded  in  the  first  chapter 
of  Leviticus ;  these  were*  expiatory,  and  are  gone,  now  that 
Christ,  the  true  sacrifice,  is  come.  There  were,  secondly, — 
eucharistic  sacrifices ;  these  are  in  the  second  chapter,  and 
such  are  the  sacrifices  that  we  are  now  to  offer  to  God.  We 
have    these   very  sacrifices   noticed    by   inspiration   itself. 


THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING.  293 

Isaiah  says,  — "  They  shall  bring  all  your  brethren  for  an 
offering  unto  the  Lord."  Here  are  men  represented  as  an 
offering  unto  the  Lord.  And,  in  this  very  epistl<3  —  Uuj 
Epistle  to  the  Romans  —  the  apostle  tells  us,  in  language 
exactly  of  the  same  kind,  —  "  That  I  should  be  the  minister 
of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Gentiles,  ministering  the  gospel  of 
God,  that  tlie  offering  up  of  the  Gentiles  might  be  accepta- 
ble, being  sanctified  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  Here  you  have 
the  phrase  applied  to  Gentiles  —  that  is,  to  Christians. 
Therefore  our  bodies  are  to  be  presented  to  God,  not  as 
expiations  for  sins  they  have  done,  but  as  expressions  of 
gratitude  and  devotedness  to  Him,  who,  by  one  Atonement, 
has  forgiven  all  sins  of  the  past,  and  who  asks  us  now,  by 
the  mercies  we  have  so  richly  received,  to  consecrate  our- 
selves as  ministers  and  servants  unto  him  who  loved  us,  and 
gave  himself  for  us. 

This  offering  of  our  body  is  represented  by  the  apostle, 
here,  as  a  living  sacrifice.  The  Jew  presented  the  slain 
victim  as  the  shadow  of  the  Great  Expiation  for  his  sins. 
In  the  peace-offering  he  presented  bread,  or  flour,  or  corn, 
and  oil,  and  frankincense,  as  the  expressions  of  his  grati- 
tude to  God.  But  we  present  a  sacrifice,  nobler  than  the 
Jews  ;  which,  though  infinitely  distant  from  Christ's  offering 
of  himself,  is,  next  to  Christ's,  the  greatest  that  can  be 
offered  on  the  altar,  or  presented  to  God  himself.  Tiie  life 
tliat  is  offered,  is  life  in  its  noblest  development  —  the  life 
of  the  individual  heart ;  a  living  dedication  to  Him  who  has 
redeemed  it  by  his  precious  blood.  And  the  apostle  uses 
tlie  word  "  body,"  to  denote  that  it  is  not  merely  a  quiescent 
feeling,  but  active  —  the  body,  the  exponent  of  the  wants 
of  the  soul,  the  will  of  the  heart,  and  the  principles  of  the 
mind. 

This  sacrifice  that  we  are  to  offer  is  called  a  holy  one. 
You  remember  the  victims  selected  for  the  altars  of  Aaron 
were  to  be  without  blemish,  without  spot.     And  the  strict 

25* 


294  THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING. 

meaning  of  the  word  "  holy,"  I  think  I  told  you  before,  is 
properly  separated,  sequestrated,  set  ajmrt.  You  have  the 
Avord  holy  applied  to  profane  things  in  the  Bible,  as  you 
have  it  most  generally  applied  to  good,  or  pure,  or  noble 
things.  And  the  reason  is,  that  whatever  is  set  apart  is 
called  in  the  Hebrew  hodosh,  —  in  the  Greek  ayiog,  —  Latin 
sacer,  holy,  or  sacred.  We  find  the  expression  in  a  Latin 
poet,  auri  sacra  fames  —  Hterally,  "the  sacred  thirst  of 
gold  ; "  but  properly  it  means,  "  the  accursed  thirst  of  gold ; " 
showing  us  that  the  meaning  of  the  word  sacer,  or  "  holy," 
is  simply  that  which  is  set  apart  for  a  specific  purpose. 
When,  therefore,  we  are  told  that  our  bodies  are  to  be  holy 
or  sacred,  it  means  separated  from  the  subjugation  of  Satan, 
separated  from  the  service  of  sin,  disinfected  of  every 
earthly  taint,  and  of  every  mortal  alloy,  presented  in  all 
their  purity  to  God ;  so  that  to  take  that  body  and  use  it  for 
sin,  is  the  same  .as  to  desecrate  the  temple  and  profane  the 
worship  of  the  living  and  the  true  God.  "  Know  ye  not 
that  your  bodies  are  the  temples  of  the  Holy  Ghost  ?  " 

It  is  said  in  the  next  place,  to  be  "•  acceptable  unto  God." 
The  sacrifice  made  by  us  of  our  bodies  is  said  to  be  accepta-' 
ble  to  God.  There  are  many  sacrifices  that  men  make, 
which  are  not  acceptable.  They  may  be  good,  or  they  may 
be  pure,  but  the  sacrifices  are  not  therefore  acceptable.  He 
that  clothes  himself  in  coarse  raiment,  lives  in  a  hermitage, 
separated  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  eats  coarse  food,  fasts 
all  day,  and  prays  all  night  ^- such  a  man  is  not  presenting 
an  acceptable  sacrifice.  He  may  do  it  from  a  pure  motive 
and  with  a  good  intent ;  but  the  question  that  will  be  put 
to  him,  is,  — "  Who  hath  required  this  at  thy  hands  ? " 
When  you  ask  the  question,  —  "  Wherewithal  shall  I  come 
before  the  Lord,  and  bow  myself  before  the  High  God  ? 
Shall  I  come  as  the  Romanist  ?  Shall  I  come  before  him 
with  burnt  offerings,  with  calves  of  a  year  old,  with  rams, 
and  rivers  of  oil  ?     Or  shall  I,  like  the  heathen,  give  my 


THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERIXG.  296 

first-born  for  the  sin  of  my  soul  ?  "  —  however  good  your 
motives,  however  divine  your  end,  yet  all  such  things  are 
blasted,  because  they  are  forbidden.  "  He  hath  showed 
thee,  0  man,  what  is  good.  And  what  doth  the  Lord  re- 
quire of  thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to 
walk  humbly  Avitli  thy  God  ?  "  This  is  acceptable  service 
to  God. 

Not  only  is  it  acceptable  service,  but  it  is  called  in  the 
next  place  your  reasonable  service.  The  word  reasonable 
conveys  the  idea  of  something  that  contrasts  with  the  mate- 
rial and  the  carnal.  It  is  not  a  service  of  beasts  and  of  birds, 
of  bread  and  of  corn,  but  the  oiFering  of  something  that  re- 
lates to  the  soul,  or  the  mind ;  and,  therefore,  it  contrasts 
with  what  is  pompous,  splendid,  and  magnificent.  The 
acceptability  of  a  sacrifice  is  not  the  splendor  or  riches  of 
them  that  present  it  —  it  is  not  magnificent  accompaniments 
of  swinging  censers,  ascending  frankincense  —  it  is  not 
gold  and  silver  vessels,  —  altars  on  which  are  piled  the 
riches  of  the  earth,  —  these  are  no  contributions  to  the  ex- 
cellence or  the  acceptability  of  the  sacrifice  ;  —  it  must  be 
the  sacrifice  of  the  heart,  the  offering  of  the  willing  mind  ; 
the  victim  that  God  himself  has  enjoined :  this  only  is  ac- 
ceptable to  him. 

Having  seen  the  meaning  of  the  text,  let  us  next  notice,  — 
it  is  our  duty  to  comply  with  the  prescription  of  Paul.  All 
you  have  is  not  your  own,  but  God's.  To  him  you  owe  the 
loyalty  of  subjects,  the  obedience  of  creatures,  the  praises 
and-  the  acclamations  of  redeemed  saints.  This  is  the  tax 
you  owe  to  the  King  of  kings ;  this  the  tribute  he  demands ; 
it  is  your  duty  cheerfully  to  pay  it.  But,  in  the  next  place, 
it  is  your  j^rivilege.  We  have  too  much  of  Sinai  in  the 
disposition  of  us  all.  We  are  so  prone  to  think  upon  what 
we  must  do,  and  what  we  ought  to  do,  and  so  averse  to  con- 
sider what  we  may  do,  and  what  it  is  our  privilege  to  do. 
Your  question  here  ought  not  to  be,  Ought  I  to  do  this  ?  but, 


296  THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING. 

May  I  do  this  ?  It  is  privilege  that  God  permits  you  to 
worship  him  —  it  is  privilege  that  he  permits  you  to  read 
his  Holy  Word.  We  ought  more  to  feel  that  we  may^  than 
to  feel  that  we  must.  And  to  present  this  sacrifice  to  God 
is  our  interest;  for  it  is  not  only  reasonable — the  most 
reasonable  thing  upon  earth  is  Christianity,  the  most  irra- 
tional thing  under  the  sun  is  scepticism;  your  consciences 
respond  to  my  words  when  they  testify  within  you  that  it  is 
reasonable,  but  it  is  right,  we  ought  to  do  it,  but  our  pas- 
sions, our  preferences,  and  our  prejudices,  will  not  let  us  do 
it ;  it  is  our  interest  to  do  it,  for  it  is  acceptable  to  God. 
Wliatever  he  is  pleased  to  accept,  surely  it  is  our  interest  to 
offer.  And  it  is  to  be  done,  as  I  have  said,  in  faith.  We 
are  not  to  think  that  any  thing,  anywhere  offered,  is  accepta- 
ble to  God ;  but  we  are  to  offer  what  he  prescribes  on  the 
altar  —  Christ  —  that  he  has  appointed,  to  the  glory  of  the 
name  of  Him  who  loved  us,  and  gave  himself  for  us.  And 
when  we  think  that  we  owe  to  God  all  we  have  as  crea- 
tures, all  we  taste  every  day  of  his  providential  goodness, 
all  we  hope  for  as  the  purchase  of  atoning  blood,  do  we  not 
feel,  with  an  emphasis  which  these  things  ought  to  impart, 
we  are  not  our  own,  we  are  bought  with  a  price  —  the  pre- 
cious blood  of  a  Lamb?  therefore,  let  us  glorify  God  with 
our  souls  and  our  bodies,  which  are  his ;  or,  translated  into 
my  text,  "  Present  your  bodies  living  sacrifices,  acceptable 
unto  God,  which  is  your  reasonable  service."  In  one 
sense  —  and  here  lies  the  greatness  of  man,  but  a  great- 
ness that  embosoms  his  noblest  obligations  —  brethren,  all 
things  are  yours  —  whether  the  learned  Paul,  or  the  elo- 
quent Cephas,  or  life  with  its  trials,  or  death  with  its  fears, 
or  things  present  with  their  anxieties,  or  things  to  come  with 
their  hopes  —  all  these  things  are  yours ;  you  are  magnifi- 
cent possessors,  you  have  a  great  inheritance ;  but,  we  must 
add  what  inspiration  adds,  you,  the  inheritors  of  all  these 
things,  are  Christ's,  and  Christ  is  God's.    Therefore,  glorify 


THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING.  297 

God  with  your  souls  and  your  bodies,  wliicli  arc  liis.  All 
that  you  have  is  a  trust ;  you  are  but  trustees.  Your  money 
is  not  your  own  ;  your  time,  your  health,  your  strength,  arc 
not  your  own.  AYliatever  you  have,  you  have  as  a  trustee. 
What  would  you  say  of  that  man  who  should  take  the 
money  intrusted  to  him,  and  lay  it  out  upon  himself —  what 
would  you  say  of  that  Christian  who  begins  his  prayer, 
"  God  be  merciful  to  me,  and  bless  me,  that  thy  ways  may 
be  known  upon  earth  —  that  I  may  be  a  missionary  —  that 
I  may  diffuse  the  knowledge  of  Christianity,  or  thy  saving 
health  among  all  nations ; "  but  who  spends  it  totally  upon 
himself?  I  do  not  say  that  you  are  not  to  enjoy  whatever 
God  gives  you  in  his  good  providence.  We  do  not  advocate 
macadamizing  all  society,  and  reducing  it  all  to  the  same 
dead  level.  I  think  that  would  be  most  absurd.  AVhile 
each  man  lives  in  the  sphere  in  which  Providence  has 
placed  him,  and  by  doing  so,  confers  the  greatest  good  upon 
society  around  him,  yet  the  poorest  and  the  richest  together 
must  know  that  they  have  more  than  they  can  use  —  that 
there  are  mouths  to  be  filled,  nakedness  to  be  clothed,  igno- 
rance to  be  taught,  the  weak  to  be  raised  up,  the  bowed 
down  to  be  upheld ;  and  a  large  world  around  looking  for 
him  that  hath  to  go  and  help  them  that  have  not.  Let  us, 
then,  my  dear  friends,  as  thus  redeemed  of  God,  as  having 
all  things  from  him,  present  our  bodies  living  sacrifices  unto 
Him.  Our  lives  are  not  our  own.  Never  forget  that  we  all 
think,  because  we  have  a  sort  of  personaliFy  in  our  expe- 
rience, that  our  life  is  our  own.  But  what  is  the  fact  ?  Your 
life  —  for  a  single  day,  of  every  day  —  is  in  your  trust  only. 
Men  talk  of  the  need  of  miracles !  Why,  every  morning 
God  gives  you  a  new  life ;  every  beat  of  your  heart  is  a  new 
burst  of  life  to  you  !  The  constant  tendency  of  life  is  to 
go  out  —  like  a  spark  on  the  sea,  like  warmth  in  winter. 
And  there  are,  in  every  part  of  that  poor  body  of  yours,  ten 
thousand  chemical  laws  ready,  the  instant  life  lets  go  its 


298  THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING. 

hold,  to  seize  upon  that  body,  and  reduce  it  to  a  mass  of 
corruption  so  loathsome,  that  the  nearest  and  the  dearest  are 
compelled  to  bury  it  out  of  sight  in  the  grave.  And  whose, 
then,  is  your  life  ?  God's !  And,  if  we  owe  life  to  God, 
surely  we  ought  to  consecrate  it  to  his  service.  I  have 
often  thought  that  we  have  in  sleep  something  like  a  fore- 
taste of  what  death  is.  I  seem  to  have  a  sort  of  hold  upon 
my  life  when  I  am  awake  ;  but  when  sleep  begins  to  steal 
over  me,  I  feel  as  if  I  were  letting  go  my  life,  that  I  have 
no  power  over  it,  that  some  one  above  me  must  take  care  of 
it,  or  I  shall  never  wake  again.  Thus,  sleep  is  a  shadow 
and  a  foretaste  of  the  grave,  and  shows,  to  the  strongest  and 
the  healthiest,  that  in  God  you  live,  and  move,  and  speak, 
and  walk,  and  have  your  being.  Therefore,  therefore  —  I 
repeat  the  illative  particle  of  the  apostle  —  j^resent  that 
body  continually  to  God,  a  living  sacrifice. 

And,  lastly,  our  souls  are  not  our  own.  God  gave  them, 
God  has  redeemed  them  ;  and  the  way  to  find  our  souls  in 
everlasting  joy  is  the  way  of  consecrating  them  now  to 
God's  service.  Priests  on  earth,  consecrating  all  we  are  to 
him,  we  shall  be  consecrated  as  priests  and  kings  to  God  in 
heaven,  worshipping  and  praising  him  forever.  And  those 
bodies  that  we  have  consecrated  now,  whilst  the  soul  dwells 
in  them,  will  one  day  be  raised  from  the  grave,  where  they 
must  be  deposited  for  a  season  ;  and  the  fallen  shrine  of 
humanity  shall  be  rebuilt  at  the  sound  of  the  last  trump, 
and  be  the  home  of  a  glorious,  immortal,  and  happy  inhabi- 
tant. Consecrated  on  the  altar  below,  our  bodies  shall  be 
crowned  on  the  throne  that  is  above.  The  direction  we 
have  taken  upon  earth  shall  not  be  arrested,  but  perpetuated 
hereafter;  and  committing  soul  and  body,  and  all  we  are, 
with  all  our  cares,  our  fears,  our  doubts,  our  difficulties,  unto 
Him,  who  is  able  to  keep  what  we  have  committed  to  him 
against  that  day,  let  us  not  doubt  for  a  moment  that  the  soul 
that  he  has  washed  in  his  blood,  the  instant  it  leaves  its 


THE    CHRISTIAN    OFFERING.  299 

eartlily  tenement,  is  a  worshipper  beside  his  tlirone ;  and 
the  dead  dust  that  we  lay  beneath  the  green  sod,  and  over 
which  the  grass  grows  for  a  season,  shall  every  atom  of  it 
hear  the  last  trump,  and  soul  and  body,  widowed  for  a  sea- 
son, shall  be  wedded  again  forever ;  and  so  we  shall  be  no 
more  priests,  with  stammering  lips  and  trembling  hands  pre- 
senting these  imperfect  offerings  below,  but  priests  and 
kings,  singing,  in  a  strain  that  will  ever  swell  and  never 
cease,  "  Unto  Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our 
sins  in  his  own  blood,  and  hath  made  us  kings  and  priests 
unto  our  God,  to  him  be  glory,  and  thanksgiving,  and 
praise."     Amen. 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

THE    GREAT    QUESTION. 

"  Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord,  and  bow  myself  before  the 
high  God  ?  shall  I  come  before  him  with  burnt  offerings,  with  calves 
of  a  year  old?  Will  the  Lord  be  pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  or 
with  ten  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil  ?  shall  I  give  my  first-born  for  my 
transgression,  the  fruit  of  ray  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul  ?  He  hath 
showed  thee,  0  man,  what  is  good;  and  what  doth  the  Lord  require  of 
thee,  but  to  do  justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God?"— MiCAiivi.  6-8. 

Generally  speaking,  the  unconverted  man  has  no 
anxiety  on  the  subject  of  religion  at  all;  or,  if  a  feeling 
flits  through  his  mind  on  his  responsibility  to  God,  and  his 
prospect  of  aj^pearance  at  the  judgment-seat,  it  is  transient, 
and  dismissed  or  buried  amid  other  thoughts  as  speedily  as 
possible.  The  Avorldly  man  thinks  of  religion  as  a  mere 
aifair,  cherished  by  a  few,  but  for  which  the  multitude  have 
very  little  time,  and  about  which  they  need  feel  very  little 
concern.  The  feeling  is,  one  man  likes  painting,  another 
man  likes  poetry,  another  trade,  and  another  religion ;  every 
one  to  liis  own  taste ;  let  every  one  follow  his  own  pursuit. 
Religion  is  regarded  as  one  amid  many  accomjilishments ; 
and  the  plea  is,  "  It  is  not  my  taste ;  it  may  be  yours :  let 
us  agree  to  differ."  This  is  the  common  feeling.  Any  thing 
more  miserable  one  can  scarcely  conceive ;  for  religion,  in- 
stead of  being  a  subject  numbered  Avith  the  many  for  each 
to  pursue  according  to  his  taste,  or  for  others  to  reject  accord- 
ing to  their  convictions  or  preferences,  is  that  great  truth 

(300) 


THE    GREAT    QUESTION.  301 

that  concerns  every  man,  that  affects  every  man,  and  that 
creates  by  its  presence  a  load  of  responsibility  inexhaustible 
on  earth  as  his  own  immortality,  and  which  Avill  meet 
him  at  the  judgment-day  as  a  savor  of  life,  or  a  savor  of 
death. 

When  a  step  further  is  taken,  and  the  thoughtless  man 
is  convinced  that  his  soul  is  in  peril,  is  satisfied  that  death 
does  not  end  him,  but  only  transfers  him,  and  tliat  by  Avhat 
he  is  on  earth  will  be  determined  what  he  shall  be  forever, 
then  his  first  thought  is  to  get  rid  of  religion  altogether; 
like  the  fool,  he  says  in  his  heart,  "  No  God ; "  like  the 
ostrich  before  her  pursuer,  he  hides  his  head  in  the  earth, 
and  hopes,  because  he  does  not  see  his  peril,  that  there  is 
none  behind. 

But  when  even  this  is  found  untenable,  and  a  new,  deeper, 
and  more  penetrating  impression  is  produced ;  when  he 
sees  what  God  is,  and  feels  what  he  himself  is ;  and  when 
all  the  opiates  of  the  world  will  not  deaden  the  feeling,  and 
all  the  dissipation  of  life  will  not  kill,  conceal,  or  extirpate 
the  thought ;  then  he  asks,  almost  in  the  agony  of  despair, 
"  If  this  be  so,  wdierewith  shall  I  come  before  the  Lord,  and 
bow  myself  before  the  high  God  ? "  That  is,  in  other 
words,  the  question,  "  AVhat  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?  How 
shall  I  get  salvation,  and,  through  salvation,  peace  with 
God,  peace  with  my  own  conscience,  and  with  all  man- 
kind ?  " 

The  answer  to  that  question  is  contained  in  the  sequel  of 
this  passage.  It  is  obvious  that  acceptance  is  here  do 
scribed  by  the  phrase,  "  come  before  God."  "  Wherewith 
shall  I  come  before  the  Lord?"  that  is,  how  shall  I  be 
accepted  of  him  ?  The  thoughtless  man  says,  "  No  God  ; " 
the  Christian  walks  with  God,  lives  before  God,  does  all  he 
does,  thinks  what  he  thinks,  pursues  what  he  pursues,  under 
the  eye  of  his  Father  and  his  God.  The  question,  there- 
fore, of  the  thoughtful  man  is,  "  How  shall  I  come  before 

2G 


302  THE    GREAT    QUESTION. 

this  Being?  I,  clad  with  sin,  before  perfect  purity  —  I, 
pressed  down  by  my  transgressions,  before  a  holy  and  just 
God  ?  "Wherewith  shall  I  be  entitled  to  his  presence,  armed 
against  his  righteous  judgments?  what  will  constitute  me 
the  recipient  of  his  sparing  mercy,  and  embosom  me  in  his 
everlasting  and  precious  love  ?  "  Thus,  the  soul,  awakened 
to  a  sense  of  its  ruin,  asks  earnestly  the  question,  "  Where- 
with shall  I  come  before  God  ?  " 

The  first  thought  is,  to  take  something  that  is  within  one's 
reach,  and  to  offer  that,  if  peradventure  God  will  accept  it. 
Hence  the  very  first  question,  "  Shall  I  come  before  him 
with  burnt  offerings  ?  Shall  I  renew  the  rights  and  cere- 
monies of  Levi  ?  Will  the  Lord  be  pleased  with  thousands 
of  rams,  if  I  had  them  ?  Would  the  sacrifice  of  so  many 
lead  to  his  forgiving  sins,  and  accepting  me  as  his  child  ? 
Or  shall  I  do  what  is  desperate,  almost  impossible,  certainly 
sinful,  —  slay  my  first-born,  and  offer  him  for  the  sin  of  my 
soul  ?  "  My  dear  friends,  when  a  person  is  under  deep  con- 
viction of  sin,  there  is  no  agony  he  will  not  endure,  no  sacri- 
fice he  will  not  make,  no  dear  and  cherished  thing  that  he 
has,  which  he  will  not  freely  part  with,  if  that  agony  can  be 
laid,  and  the  sure  and  certain  expectancy  of  happiness  can 
only  be  made  intelligible  and  clear  to  him,  or  the  prosj)ect 
of  meeting  God,  a  just  God,  and  yet  a  Saviour. 

The  reason  why  such  things  are  thought  of  is  this,  that 
God  is  seen  high,  holy,  just,  true ;  that  the  sinner  sees  him- 
self low,  sinfid,  ruined,  guilty ;  and  the  difficulty  that  occurs 
to  his  mind  is,  How  shall  such  a  one  be  just  with  God?  He 
hears  ringing  still  from  the  heights  of  Sinai,  "  The  soul  that 
sins  shall  die ; "  in  his  own  conscience  the  echoes  of  that 
sound  are  not  yet  laid  ;  and,  under  the  feeling  of  self-con- 
demnation within,  and  in  the  sight  of  a  condemning  God 
without,  he  asks  in  agony  increased,  but  not  lulled,  "  Where- 
with shall  I  come  before  the  High  God?"  Is  there  any 
thing  on  earth  that  will  introduce  me  ?     Is  there  any  thing 


THE    GREAT    QUESTION.  303 

upon  earth  that  I  can  do  that  I  may  propitiate  him  ?  lie 
mentions  all  the  sacriiices  recorded  here ;  and  the  soul  feels 
that  they  are  all  vain.  No  tears  shed  like  the  rains  in 
April  can  wash  away  the  least  transgression ;  no  blood  of 
victims  slain  upon  a  thousand  altars  can  expiate  a  single  sin ; 
no  resolution  for  the  future,  no  correction  of  conduct  you 
can  conceive,  attempt,  or  accomplish,  will  be  any  compensa- 
tion for  the  law  you  have  broken,  and  the  sins  you  have 
committed  in  the  past ;  and  the  very  first  discovery  that  the 
sinner  makes  after  the  })roposal  to  give  thousands  of  rams 
and  rivers  of  oil,  and  the  fruit  of  his  body  for  the  sin  of  his 
soul,  is  the  fact  that  neither  by  these,  nor  by  sacrifices,  nor 
by  offerings,  nor  by  deeds  of  law,  of  any  sort,  or  shape,  or 
value,  can  a  man  be  justified  in  the  sight  of  God. 

But  the  answer  is  given  ;  for  never  does  the  Holy  Spirit 
propound  a  dithculty  without  indicating  a  solution  of  it. 
"  He  hath  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is  good."  This  clause 
is  quite  distinct  from  the  rest.  "  He  hath  showed  thee,  O 
man,  what  is  good  ; "  that  is,  you  need  not  ask,  "  How  can  I 
appear  before  God  ? "  any  more ;  for  God  has  shown  you. 
Then  there  follows  a  question  quite  distinct  from  this 
answer,  "  AVliat  doth  the  Lord  require  of  thee,  but  to  do 
justly,  and  to  love  mercy,  and  to  walk  humbly  with  thy 
God  ?  " 

It  is  said,  "  God  hath  shoAved  thee,  O  man  ;  "  that  is,  he 
has  told  you.  How  has  he  told  you  ?  In  types  that  fore- 
shadowed the  way  ;  in  prophecies,  the  musical  announce- 
ments of  it ;  in  doctrines  that  clearly,  distinctly,  and  umnis- 
takably  describe  it ;  in  sacraments  that  are  the  seals,  the 
pledges,  and  the  signs  of  it ;  and  in  words  which  the  way- 
faring man  cannot  misunderstand.  Or,  it  is,  he  hath  shown 
thee  this,  "  God  so  loved  the  world,  that  he  gave  his  only 
begotten  Son,  that  whosoever  believeth  on  him  might  not 
perish,  but  have  everlasting  life."  "In  Christ,  we  have 
redemption  through  his  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins." 


304  THE    GREAT    QUESTION. 

"  He  is  the  propitiation  for  our  sins,  and  not  for  ours  only, 
but  for  the  sins  of  the  whole  world."  "  By  him  all  are  justi- 
fied from  all  things,  from  which  they  could  not  be  justified 
by  the  law  of  Moses."  "  Herein  is  love,  not  that  we  loved 
him,  but  that  he  loved  us,  and  gave  his  Son  to  die  for  us." 
"  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  cleanseth  from  all  sin."  There- 
fore, cease  to  propose  rivers  of  oil ;  give  up  dreaming  of 
rams,  and  the  sacrifice  of  goats  and  bullocks  upon  earthly 
altars ;  lay  aside  all  idea  of  giving  thy  first-born  for  the 
sin  of  thy  soul.  There  is  nothing  to  be  done ;  it  is  finished. 
There  is  nothing  to  be  sacrificed;  the  sacrifice  has  been 
made.  There  is  nothing  to  be  suffered  ;  the  penalty  has  been 
paid.  There  is  nothing  to  be  given  in  exchange ;  for  Christ's 
righteousness,  our  title  to  heaven,  is  unto  all  and  upon  all 
that  believe,  for  there  is  no  difference.  There  is  an  end  of 
penances,  and  tears,  and  mortifications,  and  pilgrimages,  and 
fasts,  and  alms,  as  atoning  or  expiatory  in  any  way,  or 
shape,  or  degree.  It  is  finished.  There  is  a  perfect  Saviour, 
a  jDerfect  title,  a  perfect  Sacrifice ;  and  as  free  to  the  poor  as 
it  is  necessary  to  the  rich ;  for  it  is  without  money  and  with- 
out price.  "  He  hath  showed  thee,  O  man,  what  is  good." 
This  is  truly  good ;  it  is  the  good  news ;  and  if  I  were  to 
translate  it  into  New  Testament  language,  I  would  render  it 
thus,  "  He  hath  spoken  to  thee,  0  man,  the  Gospel."  For 
wdiat  is  the  Gospel  ?  Good  news.  "  He  hath  showed  thee 
what  is  good  "  —  told  you  the  glad  tidings  of  good.  And  oh, 
how  good  is  it !  Suited  to  the  sinner,  for  it  descends  into 
the  deepest  depth  into  which  he  has  fallen.  Suited  to  him, 
for  it  takes  him  as  he  is,  in  order  to  make  him  what  he 
should  be.  Jt  is  good,  for  he  has  not  to  wait  for  it  a  single 
hour,  nor  to  pay  for  it  a  single  penny ;  but  just  as  he  is,  to 
go  in  Christ's  name  to  God  just  as  He  is,  and  to  taste  the 
good  things  he  has  provided,  and  to  hear  the  good  news,  and 
justified  by  faith  thus  to  have  peace  witli  God  —  delivered 
from  the  greatest  evil,  i\aised  into  the  greatest  safety— -trans- 


THE    GREAT    QUESTION.  805 

ferred  from  "  the  Mount  that  might  be  touchecl,  where  was 
blackness,  and  darkness,  and  tempest,  and  the  sound  of  words  ; 
so  that  even  Moses  himself  did  exceedingly  Tear  and  quake, 
and  brought  to  Mount  Sion,  and  unto  the  city  of  the  living 
God,  the  heavenly  Jerusalem,  and  to  an  innumerable  com- 
pany of  angels,  to  the  general  assembly  and  church  of  the 
first-born,  which  are  written  in  heaven,  and  to  God  the 
Judge  of  all,  and  to  the  spirits  of  just  men  made  perfect,  and 
to  Jesus  the  Mediator  of  the  new  covenant."  This  is  good. 
It  is  the  good  news,  the  good  result  —  the  one  so  joyous  to 
the  ear,  the  other  so  satisfying  to  the  heart.  And,  as  we 
hear  it,  are  we  not  constrained  to  exclaim,  what  Micah  says 
in  another  part  of  his  prophecy,  "If  this  be  so,  who  is  a  God 
like  unto  thee,  that  pardoneth  iniquity,  and  passeth  by  the 
transgression  of  the  remnant  of  his  heritage  ?  lie  retaineth 
not  his  anger  for  ever,  because  he  delighteth  in  mercy.  He 
will  turn  again ;  he  will  have  compassion  upon  us ;  he  will 
subdue  our  iniquities ;  and  thou  wilt  cast  all  their  sins  into 
the  depths  of  the  sea." 

And  mark  how  good  this  is.  When  God  thus  pardons, 
he  does  not  compromise  his  own  character.  The  beauty  of 
the  Gospel,  that  which  meets  our  ditficulties,  satisfies  all  our 
anxious  fears,  doubts,  perplexities,  misgivings,  is  this,  —  that 
wdien  God  thus  justifies  the  guiltiest,  he  receives  to  himself 
the  greatest  glory.  He  does  not  become  unjust  that  he  may 
have  mercy ;  but  he  is  just  while  he  justifies.  When,  there- 
fore, you  ask  God  to  show  you  what  is  good  by  manifesting 
himself  to  you  as  the  sin-pardoning  God,  you  do  not  ask  him 
to  do  a  thing  that  is  either  difficult,  or  incompatible  with  his 
own  character,  or  inconsistent  with  his  own  attributes ;  but 
you  ask  God  to  do  that  which  he  delights  to  do,  to  give  for- 
giveness to  the  greatest  sin,  acceptance  to  the  guiltiest  sin- 
ner, that  thereby  he  may  derive  glory  to  his  name,  and  be 
manifested  as  a  God  to  whom  there  is  none  in  the  heaven 
or  in  the  earth  like ;  who  pardoneth  sin,  and  passeth  by  the 

26* 


SOG  THE    GREAT    QUESTION. 

transgression  of  the  remnant  of  his  heritage.  Such  then  is 
the  answer  to  the  question. 

And  now,  \yimt  will  be  the  character  exhibited  by  those 
who  have  found  and  felt  this  thing  in  their  ow^n  happy  ex- 
2)erience  ?  This  is  what  they  will  do.  They  will  "do  justly, 
and  love  mercy,  and  walk  humbly  witli  their  God."  You 
will  do  all  that  God  requires  of  you,  not  as  the  price  of  this, 
but  as  the  evidence  of  your  gratitude  for  it ;  for  he  shows 
you  the  good  thing  first  —  he  asks  of  you  the  good  character 
next.  He  does  not  say,  "  Do  justly,  and  love  mercy,  and 
walk  humbly  with  thy  God,  in  order  that  you  may  reach 
the  good  thing ; "  but  by  grace  freely  he  tells  you  how  you 
are  pardoned,  and  he  says,  "  Now  what  I  ask  of  you,  not 
as  a  compensation,  not  as  a  reward,  but  as  the  instructive 
and  joyous  expression  of  your  own  most  grateful  and  loving 
hearts,  is,  that  you,  my  children,  will  go  forth  to  a  world 
that  disowns  me  and  dislikes  you,  and  show  them  that  free- 
dom from  the  curse  is  not  freedom  from  devotedness  to  God, 
and  justice  to  man,  and  love  to  all  mankind ;  but  that  those 
who  are  freely  pardoned  are  fully  characterized  by  all  the 
fruits  that  adorn  the  Christian  character,  win  enemies  to  its 
acceptance,  and  give  glory  to  Him  who  has  done  so  much 
for  them." 

What  then  does  He  require  ?  First,  that  you  will  "  do 
justly ; "  —  in  the  warehouse,  in  the  shop,  in  the  counting- 
house,  wherever  you  are,  that  you  will  do  justly.  Do  what 
is  just.  How  beautiful  is  that !  There  is  joy  in  being  just ; 
there  is  a  satisfaction  in  doing  what  is  honest.  There  need 
be;  and  there  must  be,  no  pride  in  it ;  and  yet,  the  conscious- 
ness that  one  is  doing  what  is  right,  is  by  a  law  lasting  as  the 
attributes  of  Deity,  in  its  place,  in  its  nature,  and  in  its  meas- 
ure, a  spring  of  satisfaction  and  delight. 

And  not  only  "doing  justly,"  but  "loving  mercy,"  —  the 
recipients  of  so  great  mercy  as  that  which  God  has  shown 
going  forth  and  displaying   mercy,  in   their  measure,  and 


THE    GREAT    QUESTION.  307 

according  to  their  means,  among  all  mankind.  Not  imitat- 
ing the  servant  who  received  great  forgiveness  from  his  lord, 
and  then  went  to  a  fellow-servant,  and  said,  with  all  the  im- 
periuous  exacting  of  tyrant  from  a  slave,  "  Pay  me  that  tho 
ow^est ; "  but  showing  mercy,  where  mercy  can  be  exercised 
without  violating  the  law,  or  injuring  the  duties  that  you  owe 
to  yourself,  your  family,  and  society.  Thus  let  mercy  be 
shown,  and  you  will  find  that  it  will  be  twice  blessed ;  like 
the  gentle  rain  that  drops  from  heaven,  it  wdll  bless  him  that 
gives,  and  him  that  takes. 

And  not  only  "love  mercy,"  but  "walk  humbly."  No 
proud  thoughts  can  lodge  in  that  heart  that  feels  that  it  was 
grace  that  forgave  it ;  that  forgiveness  is  not  the  reward  of 
any  thing  done  by  it,  but  the  result  wholly  of  something 
done  for  it.  Wherever  that  feeling  exists,  and  in  proportion 
to  the  force  with  which  it  exists,  wdll  be  that  humility  which 
looks  upon  others  as  better  than  oneself,  and  walks,  like  Noah, 
and  Enoch,  and  Abraham,  humbly  before  God. 

Thus  we  see  that  our  religion  leads  to  true  holiness,  and 
that  the  man  who  has  seen  with  greatest  clearness,  and  felt 
in  greatest  powder,  God's  goodness  in  the  forgiveness  of  his 
sins  through  Jesus  Christ,  will  manifest  to  the  world  the  ut- 
most amount  of  the  Christian  character,  by  doing  justly,  and 
loving  mercy,  and  walking  humbly  with  liis  God. 


CHAPTER    IX, 


CHRISTIAN   PRIESTS. 


"  By  him  thei*efore  let  us  offer  the  sacrifice  of  praise  to  God  continually, 
that  is,  the  fruit  of  our  lips  giving  thanks  to  his  name." — Hkbkews 
xiii.  15. 

You  will  recollect,  that  after  reading  the  seventh  chapter 
of  the  Book  of  Leviticus,  I  noticed,  what  so  much  distin- 
guishes that  chapter,  —  the  offering  of  a  eucharistic  or  thanks- 
giving nature,  frequently  and  fully  enjoined  and  elucidated 
throughout  it ;  and  I  stated  that  these,  under  the  ancient  Le- 
vitical  economy,  were  the  modes  appointed  by  God  himself, 
by  which  the  Jew  expressed  to  that  God  his  gratitude  for 
those  mercies  which  were  showered  down  upon  him  ;  and 
that  though  the  mode  be  altered  under  the  Christian  and 
the  evangelical  economy,  yet  the  substance  remains  still 
obligatory  upon  us  all.  We,  too,  are  to  offer  sacrifices  of 
praise  and  thanksgiving  as  truly  as  the  Jew,  because  we 
have  mercies  as  many,  as  rich,  as  impressive,  as  his.  These 
are  not  two  antagonistic  religions  —  the  Levitical  and  the 
Evangelical ;  but  the  same  religion,  expressed  in  the  one  in 
one  way,  and  expressed  in  the  other  in  another  —  a  simpler 
and  more  spiritual  way.  The  Gospel  is  according  to  Levi,  just 
as  the  Gospel  is  according  to  John.  It  is  the  same  Gospel, 
expressed  in  types,  and  forms,  and  ceremonies,  many  thou- 
sand years  ago,  but  now  brought  clearly  to  light,  and  of 

(308) 


CHRISTIAN    PRIESTS.  309 

which  the  grand  and  distinguishing  characteristic  is,  "Neitlier 
on  this  mountain  nor  on  that  mountain,  when  ye  worship 
the  Father,  but  they  that  worship  God  should  worship  him 
in  spirit  and  in  truth,"  —  for  such  now  God  seeketh  to  wor- 
ship him. 

The  Psahns  of  David  have  fully  as  often  songs  of  praise 
as  they  have  earnest  supplications  and  petitions  for  mercy. 
One  psalm  is  often  a  prayer  for  mercy  and  forgiveness,  but 
the  very  next  psalm  is  a  song,  a  rich  song  of  thankfulness 
for  mercies  and  blessings  received.  The  same  lips  that 
poured  forth  the  fervent  litany  contained  in  Psalm  LI. 
poured  forth  the  brilliant  and  expressive  song  of  thanks- 
giving contained  in  Psalm  CIII.  We  shall  find  in  the 
Psalms  all  the  lights  and  shadows  of  Christian  experience  — 
the  expressed  want  that  is  felt  to-day,  the  joyous  thankful- 
ness that  is  sung  to-morrow.  Gratitude,  or  thanksgiving, 
is  a  virtue  not  altogether  a  stranger  to  the  human  heart. 
Even  the  great  poet  could  teach,  that  to  call  a  man  unthank- 
ful was  to  brand  him  with  the  heaviest  infamy.  There  is 
something  even  in  the  wreck  of  human  nature  that  shows  us, 
that  to  be  thankful  for  a  blessing  is  one  of  the  simplest  and 
first  duties  that  devolve  upon  us  after  the  receipt  of  it.  We 
may  thank  the  wrong  object,  we  may  thank  imperfectly,  but 
still  wherever  benefits  are  received,  generally  speaking,  more 
or  less  of  gratitude  is  felt.  But  when  this  feeling  of  grati- 
tude is  inspired  by  the  Spirit  of  God,  then  it  shoots  far  above 
all  terrestrial  objects,  and  finds  its  repose,  its  resting-place, 
and  its  object,  only  in  the  good,  the  munificent,  the  unwearied 
Giver  of  every  good  and  of  every  perfect  gift.  Now,  ac- 
cording to  tlie  prescriptions  of  Leviticus,  the  Jew  expressed 
liis  thankfulness  by  sacrifices  most  burdensome,  most  heavy, 
constituting  a  load  that  our  fathers  were  unable  to  bear. 
But  the  same  language  is  used  by  the  Apostle  Paul  that 
Levi  would  have  used,  and  explained  by  the  apostle  as  a 
more  spiritual  and  simple  duty.    Still  we  have  an  aliai',  still 


310  CHRISTIAN   PRIESTS. 

we  have  sacrifices,  still  we  have  priests,  but  of  a  very  dif- 
ferent description  from  those  that  are  delineated  in  the  Book 
of  Leviticus,  or  instituted  by  God  under  the  Jewish  economy. 
I  have  said  we  still  have  an  Altar.  The  apostle  tells  us 
that.  In  this  very  chapter  he  says,  "  We  have  an  altar, 
whereof  they  have  no  right  to  eat  which  serve  the  tabernacle  ; 
wherefore  Jesus  also,  that  he  might  sanctify  the  people  with 
his  own  blood,  suffered  without  the  gate."  The  apostle 
plainly  tells  us,  that  Jesus  is  the  Christian's  altar ;  and  to 
show  that  he  is  the  altar,  you  have  only  to  recollect  that  it 
was  the  altar's  function  to  give  to  the  sacrifice,  or  to  the  gift, 
all  its  virtue  and  its  excellence.  "  It  is  the  altar  that  sancti- 
fieth  the  gift."  And  the  apostle  here  speaks  of  priesthood 
and  sacrifice,  when  he  says,  "  By  him  "  —  that  is,  by  Christ 
—  "  let  us  "  —  the  priests  —  "  offer  the  sacrifice  of  praise  and 
of  thanksgiving  ;  giving  thanks  to  the  name  of  God."  Then, 
when  we  offer  our  sacrifices,  whatever  they  may  be,  we  are 
to  do  so,  not  upon  the  golden  altar  of  Levi,  from  which  fra- 
grant incense  rose  under  the  ancient  economy  in  ascending 
and  acceptable  clouds  to  God ;  but  by  Him  who  is  the  an- 
titype of  the  golden  altar,  who  is  not  only  the  golden  altar  but 
has  the  golden  censer ;  on  v/hich,  with  the  much  incense  of 
his  intercession,  the  prayers  of"  all  saints"  —  that  is,  all  be- 
lievers—  are  constantly  presented  and  offered  unto  God. 
It  is  translated  into  other  words  by  the  apostle,  when  he 
says,  in  his  Epistle  to  the  Ephesians,  "  Giving  thanks  always, 
for  all  things,  unto  God,  even  the  Father,  in  the  name  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ."  To  present  the  sacrifices  of  thanks- 
giving by  Him,  as  the  golden  altar,  or  to  present  them  in 
his  name  —  the  only  name  given  among  men  whereby  we 
can  be  saved  —  is  all  one  and  the  same  thing.  His  name 
cleaves  a  passage  to  the  skies  for  the  earnest  petition,  for 
the  fervent  praise.  No  man,  however  excellent,  no  prayer, 
however  spiritual,  no  praise,  however  beautiful,  cometh  unto 
the  Father,  but  by  Christ  the  altar,  in  the  name  of  Christ 


CHRISTIAN    PRIESTS.  311 

the   Metliator,  through  him   in  whose   golden  censer   it  is 
phiced,  and  thus  accepted  of  the  Most  High. 

You  will  notice,  too,  that  Jesus  is  not  only  the  golden  altar, 
but  the  brazen  altar.  The  brazen  altar  was  for  the  sacri- 
fice of  propitiatory  victims ;  the  golden  altar  was  for  the  as- 
cending incense ;  and  what  was  offered  on  the  golden  altar, 
was  done  after  the  offering  on  the  brazen  altar  was  pre- 
sented without.  Now,  Christ  was  the  altar  of  brass,  in  that 
he  made  thereon  a  perfect  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  all  that 
believe,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world ;  and  he  is  the  golden 
altar  inasmuch  as  all  incense  of  praise  and  thanksgiving 
must  be  presented  by  him  continually.  The  work  of  the 
altar  of  brass  is  finished :  when  he  suffered  without  the 
gate  he  made  an  end  of  sin ;  he  finished  transgression,  he 
brought  in  everlasting  righteousness.  No  atonement  now 
can  be  made ;  none  is  needed  to  be  made.  The  merits  of 
that  one  atonement  are  inexhaustible  whilst  there  is  a  sin  to 
be  forgiven,  or  a  sinner  among  mankind  to  be  saved.  But 
there  is  still  the  work  of  the  golden  altar,  or  the  offerings  of 
praise  and  thanksgiving  by  him,  as  the  apostle  calls  it,  con- 
tinually. And  whenever,  therefore,  we  present  praise  or 
thanksgiving  to  God,  we  are  to  do  it  in  the  name,  or  upon 
the  altar,  or  by  and  through  Christ  Jesus ;  and  God  asks  of 
us,  not  what  he  asked  of  the  cliildren  of  Israel  —  the  herd 
of  the  stall,  or  the  fruit  of  the  vine,  or  the  oil  of  the  olive  — 
but  the  glad  thankfulness  of  a  thankful  heart ;  and  he  asks 
us  to  express  it  in  the  simple  language  of  fervent  praise. 
It  is  not  enough  to  feel  it ;  we  must  express  it.  It  is  not 
enough  to  be  thankful ;  we  must  say  so.  It  is  not  enough 
to  pray  with  the  heart,  but  we  must,  when  we  have  oppor- 
tunity, pray  with  the  lip.  It  is  not  enough  to  praise  with 
the  heart,  but  we  must,  when  we  have  opportunity,  praise 
with  the  lip.  The  apostle  adds,  "  The  fruit  of  your  lips." 
Not  simply  the  expression  of  the  heart,  which  is  the  chief 
thing,  but  also  the  fruit  of  the  lips,  which  will  always  follow 


312  CHRISTIAN    PRIESTS. 

wherever  it  is  truly  felt.  That  is,  the  apostle  teaches  us  that 
the  Christian  religion  is  to  be  first  a  thing  of  the  heart,  but 
not  only  to  be  a  thing  of  the  heart,  —  it  is  to  be  first,  a  thing 
of  the  heart ;  it  is  to  be  secondly,  as  a  necessary  sequence, 
a  thing  of  the  lip  and  of  the  life.  And,  therefore,  Christians 
in  the  congregation  are  to  join  in  prayer  and  in  praise ;  they 
ought  by  the  bowed  knee,  or  the  open  lip,  to  praise  and 
pray  to  Him,  who  has  promised  to  be  present  wherever  he 
is  pleased  to  record  his  holy  name. 

Having  seen  the  altar,  having  seen  also  the  sacrifices  that 
we  are  to  render,  let  me  notice,  in  the  next  place,  that  all 
true  Christians  are  hereby  designated  priests.  "  By  him 
offer:""  that  is  jmestly  language.  But  to  whom  does  he 
speak  ?  He  speaks  to  the  Christian  Jews  —  the  laity  — 
scattered  through  the  whole  Roman  empire.  In  other  words, 
he  speaks  to  us  believers  in  every  age  and  every  place  of 
the  world.  And  this  language  is  only  in  keeping  with  the 
rest  of  the  New  Testament.  "  Ye  are  a  chosen  generation, 
,a  royal  priesthood."  Again,  says  John,  "Unto  him  that 
loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in  his  own  blood,  and 
hath  made  us  kings  and  priests  unto  God."  Therefore  no 
minister  of  the  Gospel  is  a  priest  in  any  other  sense  than 
that  in  which  a  layman  is.  There  is  no  more  priesthood 
among  the  Christian  ministry  than  there  is  among  the  Chris- 
tian laity.  The  humblest  believer  is  as  much  a  priest,  as 
the  highest  archbishop.  One  may  differ  from  the  other  in 
this,  —  that  the  one  is  a  pastor,  an  evangelist,  a  teacher,  a 
bishop,  a  presbyter ;  but  they  do  not  differ  in  that  one  is  a 
priest,  and  the  other  is  not.  All  Christians  are  priests,  be- 
cause all  have  the  same  sacrifices  to  offer,  —  namely,  praise, 
thanksgiving,  soul,  body,  and  spirit,  good  works,  beneficence. 
"  To  do  good  and  to  communicate  forget  not,"  "  for  with  such 
sacrifices  God  is  well  pleased."  And  the  minister  of  the 
Gospel  has  no  sacrifice  to  offer  that  a  Christian  layman  has 
not  to  offer  also.     The  Lord's  Supper  is  not  a  sacrifice ;  bap- 


CHRISTIAN   PRIESTS.  313 

tism  is  not  a  sacrifice ;  a  sermon  is  not  a  sacrifice ;  and 
therefore  lie  has  no  sacrifice  to  offer  that  a  Christian  has  not 
to  offer ;  for  all  of  us  are  equally  enjoined  to  offer  sacrifices 
that  belong  to  all,  and  are  peculiar  to  no  one  class  distinc- 
tively. All  should  thank  God;  and  a  layman  is  to  do  it 
as  much  as  a  minister ;  all  should  do  good ;  all  should  pre- 
sent offerings  —  soul,  body,  and  spirit,  a  living  sacrifice. 
Therefore,  all  Christians  are  priests ;  and  what  a  grandeur 
does  it  impart  to  the  humblest  offering,  that  it  is  as  sacerdo- 
tal an  act,  as  priestly  an  act,  as  beautiful  before  God  as  any 
victim  that  the  priests  of  Levi  ever  slew,  or  that  the  patri- 
archs of  the  world  ever  presented  on  their  early  altars  ! 

These  sacrifices,  says  Paul,  we  are  to  offer  to  God  con- 
tinually. Now  here  the  language  contrasts  with  the  Levit- 
ical.  Under  the  Jewish  economy  there  were  stated  days, 
stated  hours,  and  stated  places ;  under  the  Christian  econ- 
omy there  is  no  place  unclean  ;  there  is  no  day  uncanonical ; 
anywhere,'  everywhere,  any  time,  always ;  when  the  heart 
feels  grateful  it  can  light  up  the  incense  of  its  offerings,  the 
expressions  of  its  thankfulness,  to  God  that  giveth.  There 
is  no  spot  in  the  earth  on  which  you  may  not  do  so ;  there 
is  no  employment  that  is  lawful  in  which  you  may  not  do  so. 
As  we  have  always  wants,  therefore  we  are  to  pray  always. 
As  we  are  receiving  always  blessings,  therefore  we  are  to  offer 
the  sacrifice  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  continually.  And 
he  who  feels  most  wants,  and  finds  most  supply  from  God, 
will  always  feel  most  gratitude,  and  express  it  most  contin- 
ually to  God. 

The  language  of  the  apostle  is,  in  the  next  place,  evidence 
that  such  offerings  are  acceptable  to  God.  He  would  not 
bid  us  offer  them  if  they  were  not  so.  The  ancient  Jew  had 
the  most  entire  conviction  that  when  his  priest  presented  for 
him  the  victim,  on  which  he  laid  his  hand,  or  the  eucharistic 
offering,  expressive  of  his  gratitude,  the  God  of  Abraham 
waited  to  accept  it :  and  we  may  have  as  entire  confidence 
27 


314  CHRISTIAN    FRIESTS. 

as  ever  the  Jew  had,  that  the  song  of  praise,  however  low, 
will  reach  the  skies ;  that  the  voice  of  prayer,  however  ob- 
scure, will  pierce  God's  ear ;  and  that  He  that  heard  Abra- 
ham, and  vouchsafed  his  answer  to  Levi,  will  equally  hear, 
and  answer,  and  bless  us  also.  And  when  we  think,  my  dear 
friends,  of  all  that  we  have  to  be  thankful  for,  we  feel  how 
appropriate  on  all  occasions  is  the  prescription,  "  Let  us  offer 
to  Him  the  sacrifice  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  continually." 
Our  mercies  are  fresh  every  evening,  and  they  are  renewed 
every  morning.  The  103d  Psalm  is  a  bright  string  of  bright 
mercies,  for  which  we  should  praise  God.  "  He  forgive tli 
our  iniquities ;  he  healeth  our  diseases ;  he  redeemeth  our 
life  from  destruction ;  he  crowneth  us  with  loving-kindness, 
and  with  tender  mercy ;  he  satisfieth  our  mouth  v/ith  good 
things  ;  he  executeth  righteousness  and  judgment  for  all  that 
are  oppressed ;  he  is  merciful  and  gracious,  slow  to  anger, 
plenteous  in  mercy ;  he  will  not  always  chide  ;  he  hath  not 
dealt  with  us  after  our  sins,  nor  rewarded  us  according  to 
our  iniquities.  For  as  the  heaven  is  high  above  the  earth, 
so  great  is  his  mercy  toward  them  that  fear  him.  As  far 
as  the  east  is  from  the  west,  so  far  hath  he  removed  our 
transgressions  from  us.  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children, 
so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  him."  "  Therefore  let  us 
offer  unto  him  the  sacrifice  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  con- 
tinually—  that  is,  the  fruit  of  our  lips  giving  thanks  to  his 
name."  And  when  we  think  of  all  the  blessings  that  we 
have  received  in  the  past,  we  cannot  too  earnestly  confess 
our  sins,  or  too  enthusiastically  appreciate  our  mercies. 
There  are  blessings  of  a  temporal  kind,  that  grow  around 
God's  footstool ;  these  are  showered  down  upon  us  equally 
from  on  high  ;  and  for  these  it  becomes  us  also  to  praise  him. 
By  sin  we  have  forfeited  all ;  and  therefore  the  least  pulse 
of  a  healthy  heart,  the  least  bread  in  your  basket,  is  re- 
demption mercy  ;  and  for  that  we  ought  to  thank  and  praise 
him.     And  there  are  what  are  called  spiritual  mercies,  for 


CHRISTIAN   PRIESTS.  315 

which  we  should  praise  him  —  pardoning  mercies,  redeem- 
ing mercies,  sanctifying  mercies,  adopting  mercies;  —  the 
gift  of  his  Son  ;  the  sending  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  the  posses- 
sion of  a  Bible  in  our  own  tongue ;  freedom  to  read  it ;  lib- 
erty to  speak  out  what  we  have  read  from  it ;  a  place  of 
worship ;  means  of  grace ;  hopes  of  glory ;  some  humble 
reason  for  believing  that  we  have  felt  the  force,  and  tasted 
the  blessedness  of  these  tilings.  Are  not  these  words  of  the 
apostle  applicable  to  us  ?  "  Let  us  offer  to  him  the  sacrifice 
of  praise  continually  ?  " 

To  show  how  natural  gratitude  is,  or  rather,  how  reasonable 
it  is,  let  me  notice,  that  to  own  our  receipt  of  blessings  that 
we  have  asked,  is  the  least  that  we  can  do  for  them.  Prais- 
ing God  is  just  acknowledging  to  God  the  receipt  of  the 
blessings  that  we  ask  from  God.  It  will  not  do  to  pray  like 
Christians,  and  possess  as  if  we  were  atheists.  The  sense 
of  want  that  the  Spirit  insj)ires  will  always  end  in  praise 
that  the  Father  will  accept. 

And  then,  in  the  next  place,  this  praise  is  the  declaration 
with  our  spirit  that  God  is  the  Fountain  of  all  our  blessings. 
"VVe  are  sometimes  apt  to  look  at  the  gift,  and  to  forget  the 
Giver ;  we  are  sometimes  apt  to  trace  our  best  blessings  to 
secondary  sources  ;  —  and  no  one  doubts  that  there  are  sec- 
ondary sources,  or  secondary  causes.  The  minister  who  has 
been  the  means  of  enlightening  you,  you  ought  to  be  thank- 
ful to  ;  but  your  thankfulness  should  never  rest  with  him,  but 
rise  far  above  him,  and  reach  God.  The  physician  whose 
skill  has  cured  you  of  disease,  is  a  secondary  instrument ; 
thank  him,  but  your  thankfulness  should  rise  far  above  him, 
and  reach  God.  We  are  all  prone  enough  to  give  the 
thanksgiving  —  that  is,  the  sacrifice  —  to  the  secondary 
cause  ;  let  us  however  look  above  it,  and  present  the  sacri- 
fice of  thanksgiving  chiefly  to  God,  and  that  continuall} 
And  you  may  depend  upon  it,  he  will  not  be  a  long  posses 
sor,  or  a  glad  possessor  of  great  mercies,  who  is  not  a  thank 


v. 


316  CHRISTIAN    PRIESTS. 

ful  possessor.  Slighted  mercies  are  always  the  sharpest 
judgments.  Let  us  not  then  own  our  sins  as  some  do,  think- 
ing they  are  far  less  than  they  are ;  and  let  us  not  own  our 
blessings,  as  some  do,  thinking  they  are  far  fewer  than  we 
deserve.  Let  us  be  humbled  by  a  sense  of  our  sins  ;  let  us 
be  thankful  for  the  enjoyment  of  our  mercies.  Let  both  bring 
us  to  present  sacrifices  of  praise  and  thanksgiving  to  God  — 
that  is,  the  fruit  of  our  lips  —  by  Christ  Jesus  continually. 

But  this  language  seems  to  relate  specially  to  publicly 
doing  so.  You  will  observe  the  whole  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews is  the  exposition  of  temple  rites,  temple  ceremony, 
temple  sacrifices ;  and  being  temple  language  it  is  of  course 
descriptive  of  or  allusive  to  public  worship.  Thus,  therefore, 
he  implies  we  are  not  only  privately,  not  only  in  the  family, 
but  in  the  sanctuary  by  Christ  Jesus,  in  whose  name  we 
meet,  in  whose  name  we  are  baptized,  in  whose  name  we 
are  blessed,  to  present  the  sacrifice  of  praise  and  thanks- 
giving to  God  continually,  giving  thanks  to  his  name  ;  or,  as 
it  is  in  the  margin,  "  confessing  his  name,"  —  not  ashamed 
of  it,  not  ashamed  to  proclaim  it,  boldly  avowing  whose  we 
are,  whom  we  serve,  and  to  whom  we  feel  indebted  for  the 
least  crumb  of  bread,  and  for  the  brightest  crown  of  glory. 


CHAPTER    X. 


THE    OBJECT   AND    END. 


"  But  when  the  fuhaess  of  the  time  "was  come,  God  sent  forth  his  Son, 
made  of  a  woman,  made  under  the  law,  to  redeem  them  that  were 
under  the  law,  that  Ave  might  receive  the  adoption  of  sons."  —  Gala- 
TiANS  iv.  4,  5. 

You  Avill  at  once  perceive  that  the  expressive  statement 
I  have  read  is  an  epitome  of  the  birth,  the  hfe,  the  sorrow, 
the  death  and  sacrifice  of  the  Son  of  God.  It  knits  together 
in  one  the  transactions  of  Christmas,  Good-Friday,  and 
Easter ;  it  tells  us  that  He  was  born,  that  he  redeemed  us ; 
and  that  by  that  redemption  which  he  accomplished  on  the 
cross,  we  now,  by  his  grace,  receive  the  adoption  of  sons. 
Every  clause  in  the  verse  I  have  read  is  most  suggestive 
and  instructive.  The  Great  Personage  here  described  is 
called  the  Son  of  God.  "  God  sent  forth  his  Son."  His 
assumption  to  be  the  Son  of  God  was  to  the  Jews  that  heard 
the  assumption,  the  evidence  that  he  blasphemed.  They 
said,  "  Art  thou  the  Son  of  God  ?  And  he  said  unto  them.  Ye 
say  that  I  am."  That  does  not  mean,  "  You  say  so,  whether 
I  be  so  or  not ; "  but  it  means,  "  You  say  that  very  thing 
which  I  am,  namely,  I  am  the  Son  of  God."  Well,  wliat 
followed  ?  They  said,  ^'  What  need  we  any  further  witness  ? 
for  we  ourselves  have  heard  out  of  his  own  mouth  ; "  or,  as 
27*  (317) 


818  THE    OBJECT    AND    END. 

it  is  in  a  parallel  statement,  "  He  is  guilty  of  blasphemy.'* 
Now,  every  Jew  understood  that  the  epithet,  "  Son  of  God," 
meant  and  conveyed  essential  Deity :  they  were  the  best 
judges  of  their  own  language ;  and  if  the  assumption  of  that 
relationship  had  not  conveyed  the  claim  of  essential  Deity, 
then,  when  the  Jews  so  understood  it,  and  so  understood 
Christ  to  assume  to  be,  and  if  he  had  not  been  Deity  he 
would  instantly  have  explained  to  them,  "  I  am  not  God, 
and  therefore  I  am  not  guilty  of  blasphemy  ;  I  do  not  pretend 
to  be  so,  and  your  interpretation  of  the  phrase  is  too  strong." 
But  he  never  did  so.  If  Jesus  was  a  mere  man,  and  in  no 
sense  God,  then  he  imposed  pretensions  on  mankind  utterly 
irreconcilable  with  the  pure  and  holy  character  he  sustained 
throughout ;  but  if  he  was  God,  then  the  expression,  "  Son  of 
God,"  which  he  assumed  for  himself  was  only  his  asserting 
that  which  we  can  otherwise  demonstrate  —  he  is  God  over 
all,  blessed  for  ever.  So  means  also  the  expression, "  Though 
in  the  form  of  God,  and  thinking  it  no  robbery  to  be  equal 
to  God,  he  took  upon  him  the  form  of  a  servant."  Now  ask 
the  Unitarian  interpreter  what  is  meant  by  Christ  taking  the 
form  of  a  servant ;  and  he  will  answer.  He  became  literally 
a  servant,  obedient  to  God.  Very  well ;  if,  "  being  in  the 
form  of  a  servant,"  means  that  he  was  literally  a  servant, 
then  the  corresponding  clause  in  the  text,  "  the  form  of  God," 
means  also  that  he  was  literally  God.  It  is  impossible  to 
escape  from  admitting  that  Christ  was  God  any  more  than 
it  is  possible  to  escape  from  admitting  that  he  was  man. 
Prove  to  me  that  Christ  was  not  God,  and  I  will  prove  to 
you  by  stronger  reasons,  that  he  was  not  man.  It  is  easier 
in  the  Gospel  to  find  proofs  of  the  Deity,  if  possible,  than  it 
is  to  find  proofs  of  the  very  humanity  of  Jesus.  He  was  the 
Son  of  God ;  in  asserting  that,  he  assumed  for  himself  the 
attribute  of  Deity. 

But  I  take  the  text  before  me  in  its  successive  steps. 
*'  God  sent  forth  his  Son."      "Well  now,  that  alone  would 


THE    OBJECT    AND    END.  319 

prove  that  Jesus  was  surely  something  more  than  man.  If 
he  Avas  sent  forth  by  God,  then  he  had  an  existence  previous 
to  his  birth  in  the  inn,  and  his  life  as  the  Man  of  sorrows. 
lie  sent  forth  his  Son. 

That  Son  was  "  made  of  a  woman."  A  true  and  real 
humanity  ;  our  sensibilities,  our  susceptibilities,  our  openness 
to  joy,  our  liability  to  sorrow,  to  woe,  to  tears  and  suffer- 
ing; all  these  Jesus  became.  We  never  for  one  moment 
refuse  to  believe  that  he  was  man ;  it  is  plain  he  was  man, 
and  perfectly,  completely  so  —  sin  only  excepted.  But  you 
say,  We  find  all  men  sinners.  But  then  that  does  not  prove 
that  sin  is  part  of  humanity.  When  you  go  into  an  hospi- 
tal, you  find  men  sufferers  under  some  disease ;  but  that 
does  not  imply  that  that  disease  is  part  and  parcel  of  human 
nature.  Sin  was  something  that  crept  into  human  nature  — 
a  miasma  ;  where  it  came  from,  how  to  explain  its  entrance, 
we  know  not ;  but  this  we  know,  that  man  was  made  holy 
and  happy,  and  sin  entered  afterwards,  and  death  by  sin. 
So  Jesus  was  perfect  man.  Now  if  he  had  been  a  sinner, 
he  could  not  have  been  perfect  man,  but  an  imperfect,  cor- 
rupt, and  fallen  man ;  and,  being  sinful  himself,  he  could  not 
have  been  sacrificed  for  us.  But  man  he  was ;  he  wept,  he 
rejoiced,  he  was  hungry,  he  was  thirsty,  he  was  weary. 
"  The  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us."  He  was 
God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  "  God  sent  his  Son,  made  of  a 
woman."  The  contrast  is  remarkable.  It  may  be  said  of 
you  and  me,  honi  of  a  woman ;  but  the  expression  here  is 
remarkable,  made  of  a  woman.  Sent;  —  here  is  a  previous 
existence ;  subsequently  to  his  being  sent,  he  was  made 
of  woman.  This  at  least  would  demonstrate  a  previous 
existence. 

Then  at  the  next  clause,  "  He  was  made  under  the  law." 
Not  the  ceremonial  law,  but  the  moral  law ;  because  Paul 
was  writing  to  Gentiles :  and  the  result  of  this  redemption 
is,  that  we  should  receive  the  adoption  of  sons  —  a  moral 


320  THE    OBJECT    AND    END. 

result  accruing  from  Christ  being  under  the  moral  law.  In 
Paradise,  when  we  were  made,  we  were  placed  under  the 
law.  Obedience  would  have  been  perpetual  peace  with 
us  and  God;  disobedience  the  doom  denounced  upon  it  — 
the  wages  of  sin,  namely,  death.  Now  Jesus  became  sub- 
ject to  the  law  just  as  Adam  was,  for  he  obeyed  it,  and 
earned  its  reward.  Being  a  representative  then  of  us,  if  he 
had  faltered  or  fallen  he  would  have  lost  himself,  if  that 
were  possible,  and  we  should  have  lost  our  restoration. 
Adam,  placed  under  the  law,  broke  it,  and  brought  death 
into  the  world,  and  all  our  woe ;  Christ,  placed  under  the 
law,  kept  it,  and  brought  righteousness  into  the  world,  and 
its  everlasting  reward.  Adam  in  Paradise  was  made  a 
representative  personage:  and  we  are  fallen  in  him  the 
instant  we  are  born  into  a  fallen  world.  Jesus  came  into 
the  world  a  representative  personage,  and  we  that  believe  in 
him  are  justified  by  what  he  did,  and  admitted  to  the  heaven 
that  we  justly  forfeited.  Thus  our  restoration  travels  along 
the  very  line  of  our  ruin ;  redemption  is  the  unwinding  of 
what  the  fall  has  wound  up  and  done ;  and,  therefore,  as  by 
the  disobedience  of  our  first  representative  head,  who  was 
human,  all  men  are  constituted  sinners ;  so  by  the  obedience 
of  our  second  Adam,  our  second  representative  Head,  all 
that  believe  on  him,  that  are  willing  to  accept  of  it,  that  will 
step  out  of  the  first  Adam  relationship,  and  come  into  the 
second  Adam  relationship,  will  be  justified,  acquitted,  ac- 
cepted, and  saved. 

- 1  take  a  step  further,  as  a  proof  of  the  essential  deity  of 
our  Lord.  If  his  calling  himself  the  Son  of  God  was  proof 
of  Deity,  if  his  being  sent  and  made  of  a  woman  is  evi- 
dence of  previous  existence,  I  go  a  step  further ;  and  I  say, 
that  if  I  wish  the  most  powerful  proof  that  Jesus  was  God, 
I  would  just  quote  this  incidental  one  —  "  made  of  a  woman, 
made  under  the  law."  All  of  us  are  by  nature  under  the 
law.     The  very  condition  of   creatureship  is  obedience  to 


THE    OBJECT    AND    END.  321 

law.  We  are  subjects  of  the  Great  Sovereign,  creatin-es  of 
the  Great  Creator,  children  of  the  same  Fatiier  ;  and  ne 
are  born  under  the  hiw,  to  obey  it ;  and  if  we  disobey  it, 
that  is  our  ruin.  But  Christ  was  made  under  the  hiw  ;  and 
that  expression,  made  under  it,  implies  that  he  was  originally 
not  under  it ;  and  if  not  under  law,  he  was  originally  above 
law.  And  who  is  above  law  ?  Only  the  Legislator,  or  the 
great  Maker  of  Law.  And  therefore  the  very  words, 
"  made  under  the  law,"  are  to  me  iiTCsistible,  and  I  think  to 
every  sound  mind  irrefragable  proof,  that  if  the  apostle 
Avrote  by  inspiration,  and  understood  his  own  language,  he 
taught  in  this  passage  that  Jesus  previously  existed,  that 
Jesus  was  above  law,  therefore  the  Maker  of  Law,  the  Leg- 
islator, or  the  Lord  of  law ;  and  that  those  who  conclude 
that  he  was  God  over  all,  blessed  forevermore,  are  not 
guilty  of  extravagance,  do  not  pervert  plain  passages,  but 
assert  what  is  indisputable  and  demonstrable  fact. 

Now,  I  quote  these  incidental  proofs  of  the  deity  of 
Jesus,  not,  in  my  humble  judgment,  that  we  need  them ;  for, 
take  away  that  truth,  and  I  do  not  think  that  Christianity 
would  be  glad  tidings  to  all  mankind.  It  seems  to  me  that 
if  all  that  the  New  Testament  is,  be  merely  a  clear  exhibi- 
tion of  God's  law,  it  is  not  necessary.  The  Ten  Command- 
ments tell  clearly  enough  what  God  demands,  and  our  own 
consciences  tell  us  plainly  enough  that  we  cannot  keep 
them.  And  if,  therefore,  Christianity  be  merely  a  clearer 
unfolding  of  duty,  greater  encouragements  to  do  it,  I  can 
only  say  it  is  a  step  a  little  in  advance  of  Socrates  and 
Plato  ;  I  cannot  see  in  it  that  which  I  want  as  a  poor  sinner. 
If  I  am  in  an  hospital,  I  do  not  want  to  be  taught  to  walk ; 
I  want  to  be  cured  of  my  disease,  and  then  instinctively  I 
shall  walk.  I  am  sick  ;  I  want  a  physician,  not  a  model.  I 
am  a  sinner ;  I  need  not  simply  to  be  told  what  it  is  to  do 
right,  but  I  need  to  be  informed  how  sin  shall  be  pardoned ; 
not  only  to  be  told  that  it  could  be  pardoned,  but  be  so  satis- 


322  THE    OBJECT    AND    END. 

fied  that  God  is  holy,  and  just,  and  true  while  he  pardons 
my  sins,  that  I  shall  have  confidence  in  his  government, 
confidence  in  his  promises,  and  believe  that  it  is  his  glory  to 
forgive  as  well  as  that  it  is  possible  that  I  can  be  forgiven. 

And  therefore  says  the  apostle,  he  was  made  of  a  woman, 
made  under  the  law,  for  what  purpose  ?  "  To  redeem  them 
that  were  under  the  law."  Not  to  be  a  model  to  us ;  not, 
he  was  made  of  a  woman  to  teach  us ;  not  to  show  how  a 
martyr  can  die :  but  he  was  made  of  a  woman,  made  under 
the  law,  to  receive  redemption  by  a  price,  redemption 
through  his  blood ;  to  bear  my  sins,  that  I  might  never  bear 
them ;  to  obey  my  law,  that  I,  who  have  broken  it,  may  not 
be  condemned  by  it ;  to  rescue  me  from  the  condemnation 
of  sin,  from  the  pollution  of  sin,  and  from  the  power  of  sin. 
He  came  an  expiation,  not  a  mere  example ;  he  died  a  vic- 
tim, not  a  mere  martyr.  His  sufferings  were  not  for  his 
own  sins,  but  the  iniquities  of  us  all  were  laid  upon  him. 
He  was  wounded  for  our  transgressions ;  the  chastisement 
of  our  peace  was  upon  him.  What  beautiful  combinations 
there  are  in  every  passage  that  describes  what  Christ  was ! 
What  evidences  of  his  holiness,  what  lights  revealing  to  us 
his  grandeur,  what  proofs  of  the  Sufferer,  what  proofs  of  the 
Kincr  of  kings  and  Lord  of  lords !  I  think  the  whole  biog- 
raphy  of  Christ  in  the  Gospels  is  utterly  inexj)licable, 
except  on  the  hypothesis  that  God  was  there,  treading  on 
the  waters  of  the  sea,  hushing  the  fierce  winds,  quickening 
the  dead,  weeping,  rejoicing,  triumphing,  doing  miracles  that 
were  divine,  and  bearing  burdens  that  were  human  —  the 
presence  of  God  manifest  in  the  flesh.  Grant  that  one 
truth  —  that  Jesus  was  God  in  my  nature,  and  the  whole  of 
the  New  Testament  is  luminous,  harmonious,  plain. 

In  noticing  the  character  of  Jesus  —  his  remarkable  and 
striking  character  —  the  agony  that  he  endured  in  the  gar- 
den—  the  sorrow  tliat  he  felt  everywhere,  we  see  what  in- 
tensity of  feeling  was  always  and  everywhere  in  the  char- 


THE    OBJECT    AND    END.  323 

actcr  of  Josus.  Tlie.c  was  a  simplicity,  and  yet  a  solemnity, 
which  indicated,  even  when  he  Tejoiced  in  spirit,  that  it  was 
but  the  rii)ple  of  the  wave  on  the  surface ;  the  awful  depths 
of  his  soul  below  were  undisturbed  in  their  great  and  holy 
calm.  In  reading  his  life,  all  must  notice  the  intensity  of 
his  feelings.  And  one  can  see  how  natural  this  was.  There 
are  moments  in  everybody's  history  —  what  are  called  criti- 
cal, it  may  be  rare  moments  —  when  the  whole  future  de- 
pends upon  a  step  or  a  decision  that  you  form  that  very  day. 
And  when  the  destinies  of  others,  as  well  as  our  own,  are 
contingent  upon  our  decision,  then  the  pressure  becomes 
overwhelming,  and  decision  is  courted  as  the  only  ])Ossible 
relief.  Jesus  ever  felt  this  intensity  of  feeling,  because  ayarj 
word  he  spoke,  every  act  he  did,  every  thing  he  said  or  suf- 
fered, all  involved  and  related  to  the  glory  of  God,  and  the 
salvation  of  innumerable  souls.  If  an  individual  man  feels 
at  one  moment  so  intensely  that  decision  in  any  shape  is  re- 
lief to  his  irrepressible  feelings,  how  must  Jesus  have  felt 
when,  being  a  man  just  as  we  are,  he  felt  the  whole  weight 
of  the  world,  and  the  whole  responsibility  of  the  salvation 
of  millions  and  millions  contingent  upon  every  decision, 
upon  every  step,  upon  every  act  of  that  wondrous  biography! 
But  more  than  that ;  when  Adam,  our  representative,  stood 
with  the  weight  of  our  condition  and  destiny  upon  his  shoul- 
der, Adam  was  in  a  beautiful  spot,  breathing  a  balmy  air, 
all  things  cooperating  with  him,  nothing  calculated  to  irritate, 
to  exasperate,  or  to  grieve  him ;  but  when  Jesus  came  into 
our  world  to  redeem  us  that  were  under  the  law,  he  came 
into  a  world  fallen ;  the  very  men  he  came  to  save  in  that 
world  shouted  and  cried,  "  Crucify  him ! "  every  thing  to 
grieve  him  was  in  it,  nothing  holy,  beautiful,  or  good.  He 
must,  however,  have  felt,  if  I  may  apply  such  a  phrase  to 
him,  the  awful  responsibility  of  being  the  Sacrifice  —  the 
Saviour,  by  what  he  was,  and  did,  and  said,  and  suffered,  of 
unnumbered  millions  of  mankind.     But  what  is  more,  when 


824  THE    OBJECT    AND    END. 

Jesus  came  into  this  world  to  redeem  us  that  were  under  the 
law,  he  was,  in  all  he  thought,  and  felt,  and  said,  alone.  We 
know  that  in  a  critical  moment,  when  much  may  depend 
upon  our  decision,  we  call  in  a  counsellor.  Sympathy 
softens  the  bitterest  sorrow,  and  lightens  half  of  the  heaviest 
load  :  and  when  it  is  a  matter  involving  great  difficulty,  the 
advice  of  a  friend,  a  judicious  counsellor,  how  precious  is  it ! 
But  when  Jesus  came  to  redeem  us,  he  was,  in  the  most 
awful  sense  of  the  word,  alone.  He  trod  the  wine-press 
alone  ;  he  had  sympathy  nowhere  upon  earth  ;  he  had  advice 
nov.'here,  if  he  needed  it,  upon  earth.  At  his  death  all  for- 
sook him  and  fled ;  at  the  solemn  moment  of  the  Supper 
they  began  to  dispute  which  should  be  greatest  and  chiefest 
in  the  kingdom  of  heaven ;  he  was,  from  first  to  last,  alone ; 
and  the  loneliness  of  his  agony,  even  when  in  the  midst  of 
crowds,  was  part  and  parcel  of  the  weight,  and  poignancy, 
and  pressure  of  that  cross  which  he  had  to  bear.  And  not 
only  was  he  alone,  but  he  was  accused  by  man,  he  was 
tempted  by  Satan  in  the  hour  of  frailty  and  weakness ;  all 
elements  against  him ;  all  hostile,  none  friendly.  And  yet, 
in  spite  of  all,  in  the  midst  of  all,  he  finished  transgression, 
made  an  end  of  sin,  brought  in  everlasting  righteousness ; 
and  by  him,  thus  made  under  the  law,  made  of  a  Avoman, 
frail,  weak,  sorrowful,  suffering,  we  are  redeemed  as  by  his 
blood,  and  made  kings  and  priests  unto  our  God,  —  and 
unto  him  for  ever  and  for  ever.  Here,  then,  we  have  the 
good  news  of  the  Gospel  —  these  are  good  news  I  am  speak- 
ing to  you  this  day,  not  as  a  teacher  of  what  you  should  be, 
but  as  a  preacher  of  a  cure  provided  for  you  sinners.  The 
very  key-note  of  the  glad  music  of  the  Gospel  is,  that  He 
is  come  to  seek  and  to  save  them  that  are  lost- — ^that  he  was 
made  under  the  law,  not  to  teach,  not  to  present  a  model, 
but  to  redeem  them  that  were  under  the  law.  The  great 
peculiarity  of  Christianity  is,  that  it  is  a  remedial  system ; 
the  pulpit  is  a  place  for  prescriptions  for  the  sick,  the  sinful, 


THE    OBJECT    AND    END.  325 

and  the  Jyinj^,  not  a  desk  for  giving  directions  to  them  that 
are  whole.  The  pulpit  of  a  Unitarian  is  simj)ly  a  desk 
from  which  he  snows  down  cold  directions  to  men,  on  the 
supposition  that  they  are  strong  and  able  to  walk  to  heaven. 
But  the  pulpit  of  them  that  believe  in  the  deity  of  Christ  is 
a  place  from  which  are  scattered  more  beautiful,  and  ten 
thousand  times  more  precious  than  from  an  earthly  pharma- 
copoeia, prescriptions  for  the  sick,  the  sinful,  the  dying,  the 
chiefest  of  sinners,  insuring  instant  pardon  and  eternal 
peace  through  the  blood  of  Him  that  was  made  of  a  woman, 
made  under  the  law,  to  redeem  us,  that  we  might  receive 
the  adoption  of  sons. 

Then  behold  v/hat  a  dignity  the  incarnation  of  Christ  con- 
fers on  human  nature.  Beautiful  thought !  the  Architect 
of  this  wondrous  house  of  ours  has  taken  up  his  residence  in 
the  midst  of  it ;  a  fragment  of  my  nature  is  glorified,  and  in 
the  presence  of  Him  who  dwelleth  in  light  inaccessible,  and 
full  of  glory ;  and  that  portion  of  my  humanity  is  there,  not 
as  a  fact  dead  and  done  with,  but  as  a  proof  and  pledge  to 
me  that  the  way  is  open  to  me  to  the  same  height,  and  that 
through  that  precious  sacrifice  of  Jesus  I  can  be  raised  and 
elevated  too. 

In  the  second  place,  what  a  sublime  dispensation  is  the 
Gospel;  what  strange  antagonisms  are  concerned  in  it; 
infinitude  and  finitude,  eternity  and  time,  weakness  and  om- 
nipotence, life  and  death,  God  and  man,  heaven  and  earth ! 
These  antagonisms  welded  in  one,  constitute  the  peculiarity 
of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  Jesus.  Sin  was  a  system  of  dislo- 
cation, of  disruption,  of  fracture ;  love  in  the  Gospel  is  the 
grand  system  of  union  and  of  concord.  This  earth,  w^hich 
sin  struck  off  from  the  great  continent  of  heaven,  and  left  a 
lonely  isle  upon  the  bosom  of  the  desert  sea,  is,  by  Christ's 
redemption,  reattached  to  the  great  continent  of  heaven, 
and  partakes  again  of  its  sunshine,  its  happiness,  and  its 

28 


32G  THE    OBJECT    AND    END. 

joy.     He  has  redeemed  it  and  us,  that  we  may  receive  the 
adoption  of  sons,  and  cartli  be  restored  with  all  things. 

Plow  guilty,  I  ask,  in  the  next  place,  are  we  if  we  neglect 
so  great  salvation  !  Men  perish  not  generally  by  rejecting 
the  Gospel,  but  by  neglecting  it.  I  very  much  respect  a 
sceptic  who  says,  "  I  have  examined  all  proof,  investigated 
all  history,  read  thoroughly  the  Bible,  and  I  have  formed 
the  conviction  that  the  Bible  is  not  true."  I  think  he  is 
dreadfully  misguided ;  that  he  is  terribly  mistaken.  I  can 
barely  conceive  such  a  result  possible ;  and  in  past  instances, 
such  as  Paine,  and  Voltaire,  and  Rousseau,  most  of  them 
admitted  they  had  never  read  the  Bible,  except  some  texts, 
that  they  might  make  merry  with.  But  I  say,  suppose  it  to 
be  possible  that  a  man  comes  to  the  conclusion  of  being  a 
sceptic,  after  thorough  investigation,  I  will  respect  such  a 
man.  I  understand  his  position.  I  lament  it,  I  deplore  it, 
I  think  he  is  greatly  misguided ;  yet  I  respect  him :  but  I 
can  scarcely  respect  the  man  who  knows  the  Gospel,  and 
neglects  it ;  who  has  not  the  manliness  to  reject  it,  or  the 
piety  to  accept  it ;  but  lives,  with  truths  sounding  in  his  ears 
enough  to  raise  the  dead,  and  to  electrify  them  that  are  most 
insensible,  and  yet  lives,  and  speaks,  and  talks  as  if  no 
Christmas  had  ever  shone  upon  our  earth,  and  no  agony  and 
bloody  sweat  had  ever  been  recorded  in  the  annals  of  man- 
kind. Well  might  an  apostle  say,  "  How  shall  we  escape, 
if  we  "  —  not  reject,  but  if  we  —  "  neglect  so  great  salva- 
tion ? "  "  For  if  we  sin  wilfully,  after  that  we  have  re- 
ceived the  knowledge  of  the  truth,  there  remaineth  no  more 
sacrifice  for  sin."  "  He  that  despised  Moses'  law,  died  with- 
out mercy,  under  two  or  three  witnesses ;  of  how  much 
sorer  punishment,  suppose  ye,  shall  he  be  thought  worthy, 
who  hath  trodden  underfoot  the  Son  of  God,  and  hath 
counted  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  wherewith  he  was  sancti- 
fied, an  unholy  thing,  and  hath  done  despite  unto  the  Spirit 
of  grace  ?  " 


THE    OBJECT    AND    END.  327 

What  a  dignity  is  confeiTcd  upon  the  sorrows  and  tlie 
sufferings  of  Christ!  Eaeh  tear  cancelled  a  sin  —  each 
agony  exhausted  a  curse.  His  sufferings  were  the  suffer- 
ings of  man,  but  made  precious,  infinitely  ])recious,  because 
the  sufferings  of  God  in  our  nature.  And,  in  the  next 
place,  what  ground  of  trust  have  we  in  the  Gospel !  When 
we  rest  upon  this  blessed  Jesus  as  our  Saviour,  we  do  not 
rest  upon  an  arm  of  fiesii.  Though  he  was  made  of  a 
woman,  though  he  was  made  under  the  law,  yet  when  we 
rest  upon  him,  we  do  not  rest  upon  a  mere  arm  of  fiesh.  I 
could  trust  my  wealth  to  a  man  ;  I  could  trust  my  name, 
my  credit,  my  character  to  man  ;  I  could  trust  any  thing  I 
have  in  this  world  to  man ;  and  there  are  men,  who  are  not 
Christians,  most  honorable,  most  upright,  most  just,  in  whose 
hands  I  could  place  untold  millions ;  and  this  we  ought  to 
be,  but  that  is  not  all.  I  say  I  can  trust  every  thing  I  have 
in  this  world  to  man ;  but  there  is  one  thing  I  would  not 
trust  to  the  Queen  upon  the  throne,  I  would  not  trust  to  the 
highest  angel  that  is  beside  God's  throne,  and  that  is,  my 
soul.  I  must  have  God  to  take  care  of  my  soul,  or  I  will 
risk  the  experiment  of  taking  care  of  it  myself.  If  Christ 
were  a  mere  man,  I  could  not  trust  him  with  my  soul.  He 
might  falter,  he  might  fall.  It  is  my  all ;  if  it  is  gone,  it  is 
gone  forever  —  if  it  is  lost,  it  is  irretrievably  lost.  But  I 
know  in  whom  I  have  believed,  and  that  He  is  able  —  there 
is  the  glad  tidings  —  that  he  is  able  to  keep  what  I  have 
committed  to  him  against  that  day. 

Thus  we  have  learned  in  the  light  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, that  Leviticus  is  not  without  its  meaning,  its  object, 
and  its  mission.  It  is  full  of  Christ.  Its  harmony  and 
its  glory  are  in  Ilim.  Many  a  humble  Israelite  learned 
from  Levi  what  we  learn  more  easily  from  Matthew,  and 
John,  and  Paul  —  the  way  to  heaven.  Its  dim  lights 
disclosed  the  everlasting  rest  —  the  price  of  it,  and  the 
precious  blood  by   which  its   heirs   have   been  redeemed. 


328  THE    OBJECT    AND    END. 

The  Jews  lived  in  the  grey  and  misty  dawn,  —  we  in  noon- 
day. But  the  same  sun  gives  the  morning  twilight,  who 
pours  down  the  effulgence  of  noon.  Ours  is  greater  privi- 
lege. It  is,  therefore,  greater  responsibility.  O  Eternal 
and  Blessed  Spirit,  who  spake  by  the  prophets,  teach  us,  seal 
us,  sanctify  us  I 


I 


CHAPTER    XI 


LAST    APPEAL. 


"  And  ye  will  not  come  to  me,  that  ye  might  have  life."  — Joii:s  v.  40. 

,  I  STATED,  in  the  course  of  my  explanatory  remarks  on 
the  instructive  chapters  of  Leviticus  I  have  read  —  for  they 
are  instructive  in  more  tlian  one  great  feature  of  tlie  Chris- 
tian economy  —  that  tlie  leprosy,  there  so  graphically  de- 
scribed, was,  if  left  to  itself,  a  fatal  disease.  It  brought 
death  to  him  who  was  its  victim,  unless  means  were  inter- 
posed to  neutralize  its  influence,  and  to  arrest  its  effects. 
The  fact  is,  all  disease  is  more  or  less  connected  with  death  ; 
it  is  supposed,  by  those  most  competent  to  pronounce  on  the 
subject,  that  there  is  no  such  fact  on  earth  as  perfect  health ; 
that  the  instant  we  are  born,  the  curse,  pronounced  in  Para- 
dise, has  its  response  in  every  nerve  and  member  of  our 
physical  economy,  and  we  begin,  having  eaten  thereof,  im- 
mediately to  die.  I  stated,  however,  that  all  disease  is  evi- 
dence of  sin.  If  there  had  been  no  sin  to  infect  the  world 
with  its  poison,  and  to  project  its  dark  and  baneful  shadow 
over  an  orb  that  once  was  beautiful  and  fair,  there  had  been 
no  aches,  and  ills,  and  sickness,  and  old  age,  and  decay,  and 
death.  One  disease,  however,  is  singled  out  from  the  rest, 
and  made  the  great  characteristic  type  of  that  inner  univer- 
sal disease,  of  which  all  outer  maladies  are  the  sad  and  sor- 
rowing progeny.  The  great  typical  disease  was  that  spoken 
of  in  the  chapter,  and  it  is  the  type  of  sin  in  the  heart,  the 

28  *  (329) 


330  LAST    APPEAL. 

inner  disease  of  all  humanity.  Now  we  were  told,  that, 
iniless  God  himself  cured  the  leper,  there  was  no  cure  for 
him  ;  that,  tlierefore,  his  going  to  the  priest  was  to  ascertain, 
Have  I  that  disease  or  not?  If  he  had  it  not,  he  needed 
not  to  seek  a  cure ;  but  if  the  priest  pronounced,  from  cer- 
tain symptoms,  that  it  was  that  disease,  then  it  was  the  duty 
of  the  leper  to  detach  himself  from  society,  to  go  to  God,  the 
Great  Healer,  and  to  ask  the  cure  of  his  disease  from  him. 
We  do  not  need  a  Jewish  priest,  or  any  other  priest,  to  tell 
us,  that  the  great  inward  malady  is  in  us  all ;  that  sin  has 
entered,  circulates  its  poison  through  every  vein,  irritates 
every  faculty  of  the  soul  and  every  affection  of  the  heart 
with  its  poison  ;  and  that  unless  we  are  healed  by  Him,  par- 
doned by  Him,  our  sins  removed  by  Him  who  alone  has 
power,  and  is  willing  to  pronounce  judicial  absolution,  we 
never  can  be  healed,  or  pardoned,  or  forgiven  at  all.  Hence, 
the  grand  prescription,  applicable  to  all  in  this  assembly, 
like  a  leaf  that  has  fallen  from  the  tree  of  life,  legible  also 
to  all,  is,  "  Believe  on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  thou  shalt 
be  saved."  Come  unto  Him,  the  Physician  that  heals,  the 
Sacrifice  that  atones,  the  Prophet  that  teacheth,  and  you 
will  have  everlasting  life.  And  then  the  complaint  that  he 
is  constrained  to  utter  is,  "  Ye,  notwithstanding  you  are  con- 
scious of  this  poison  in  you ;  ye,  notwithstanding  you  feel 
this  moral  malady  is  upon  you ;  ye,  the  victims  of  a  disease 
that  must  drag  you  to  everlasting  ruin  if  not  arrested, 
cured,  and  healed,  be  astonished,  O  heavens,  and  wonder,  O 
earth ;  ye,  the  victims  of  such  a  malady,  will  not  come  unto 
me,  that  you  may  get  that  which  you  can  get  nowhere 
else  —  life,  health,  and  happiness  forever." 

I  have  selected  these  words,  then,  after  giving  this  intro- 
ductory explanation  of  their  connection  with  the  malady  de- 
scribed in  the  chapter  we  have  read,  in  order  to  meet,  and, 
if  possible,  to  obviate,  difficulties,  real  or  imaginary,  felt  by 
many  in  accepting   the  great   prescription  of  the  Gospel ; 


LAST   APPEAL.  331 

namely,  believe  on  Christ,  come  to  him,  rest  upon  him,  and 
have  everlasting  life.  Now,  one  of  the  most  common  excuses 
urged  by  persons  to  whom  I  address  the  solemn  responsibil- 
ities under  which  they  live,  is  that  you  admit  yourself  that 
the  regeneration  of  the  heart  is  an  act  of  sovereignty.  You 
admit  yourself  that  man  cannot  turn,  or  convert,  or  change 
himself.  How,  then,  can  we  believe  in  Christ,  unless  we 
get  Divine  power  ?  And  does  not  the  impossibility  of  doing 
so  suggest  to  us  the  duty  of  waiting  till  Christ  is  pleased  to 
change  the  heart,  and  to  enable  us  to  believe  in  his  holy 
name?  Now,  I  admit  at  once,  you  cannot.  But  then  I 
must  distinguish.  There  are  two  cannots:  there  is  the 
cannot  which  is,  physically  and  strictly,  "  I  cannot ; "  and 
there  is  a  cannot  which,  translated  into  honest  language,  and 
as  it  sounds  in  the  presence  of  the  Almighty,  is,  "  I  will  not." 
The  question,  therefore,  is,  whether  your  "  cannot "  is  "  will 
not"  —  physical  or  moral  inability?  That  there  are  two 
such  inabilities  is  obvious  from  the  language  that  we  use. 
We  say,  "  An  honest  man  cannot  steal."  Why  ?  Because 
he  will  not.  We  say,  "  A  thief  cannot  steal."  Why  ?  Be- 
ause  he  can  get  nothing  to  lay  his  hand  upon.  The  one,  there- 
fore, cannot  steal,  because  he  is  utterly  indisposed  to  dis- 
honesty ;  the  other  cannot  steal,  because  he  cannot  get  any 
thing  to  lay  his  hand  upon.  So,  we  say  again,  "  The  poor 
cannot  give  money  at  a  collection,"  because  they  have  none 
to  give.  We  also  say,  "  A  miser  cannot  give  "  simply  be- 
cause, though  he  has  plenty  to  give,  he  has  not  a  heart  to 
give.  AVe  see,  therefore,  a  broad  distinction,  between  cannot, 
the  result  of  physical  inability,  and  cannot,  as  a  mere  "  will 
not,"  or  being  willing  to  do  so. 

When  I  bid  you  believe  on  Christ,  or,  in  the  common 
language  of  Scripture,  come  to  Christ,  —  your  answer  is,  "  I 
cannot."  Do  you  mean,  then,  that  you  have  no  capacity  for 
salvation,  or  do  you  mean  that  you  have  no  inclination  to 
accept  of  salvation  ?     I  answer  at  once,  If  you  have  no  ca- 


332  LAST    APPEAL. 

pacity  for  salvation  —  If  you  are  utterly  incapable  of  accept- 
ing the  Gospel  —  then  you  have  a  most  excellent  and  valid 
excuse,  and  there  will  be  no  i^unishment.  If  it  really  be  a 
valid  excuse,  good,  sincere,  real,  that  you  are  incapable  of 
being  a  Christian,  you  will  never  be  condemned  for  not  being 
a  Christian.  For  instance,  when  a  lunatic  speaks  profane 
language  we  do  not  think  of  blaming  him,  because  he  has 
lost  the  balance  of  his  mental  powers,  or  those  mental  powers 
are  so  disordered  by  disease,  or  the  physical  disorganization 
of  them,  that  he  is  unable  to  regulate  his  own  conduct,  or  to 
do  that  which  is  right.  Duty  always  falls  before  a  valid 
excuse.  But  is  your  excuse  of  this  sort  ?  Is  your  "  I  cannot " 
of  this  sort  ?  Are  you  sure  it  does  not  imply,  or  conceal 
almost  from  yourself,  the  latent,  but  criminal  resolution,  "  I 
will  not  believe,  because  there  is  something  that  I  love  better 
than  the  service  of  God,  the  salvation  of  the  soul,  the  hopes 
of  glory  ?  "  Now,  if  it  be  the  latter,  if  it  really  be  the  latter, 
that  you  will  not,  it  is  no  excuse  whatever.  For  a  man 
to  plead  that  he  cannot  do  what  God  bids  him,  because 
he  so  loves  sin,  is  outrageously  absurd ;  it  is  to  make  sin 
an  excuse  for  sinning,  and  to  plead  one  crime  as  an 
apology  for  perpetrating  another.  But  if  your  excuse 
be  of  the  first  sort  that  I  have  alluded  to  —  namely,  that 
you  cannot,  physically  cannot,  that  is  a  very  ditferent  ex- 
cuse. I  ask  you,  Why  have  you  come  to  this  conclusion  ? 
I  press  you  closer,  and  I  ask  you,  Why  have  you  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  you  cannot  physically,  mentally  believe 
on  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  come  unto  him,  and  be  saved  by 
him?  If  you  say  —  and  you  say  so  far  very  justly  —  that 
we  are  all  fallen  creatures ;  that  Ave  suffer  by  Adam's  sin ; 
the  taint  of  it,  and  disorganization  of  it,  has  overtaken  us,  and 
we  are  all  conscious  of  it,  and  therefore  we  cannot  believe ; 
if  you  say  so,  I  ask.  Is  your  will  extinguished  with  the  rest 
of  your  mental  and  your  material  economy  ?  Do  you  find  it 
as  matter-of-fact  that  Adam's  sin  has  taken  away  your  will  ? 


LAST   APPEAL.  333 

Do  yon  never  choose  what  you  love  in  this  worhl,  and  re- 
ject what  you  hate  ?  Is  not  this  proof  of  a  will  ?  Are  you 
not,  on  the  contrary,  perfectly  conscious  that  you  do  choose 
to  do  this  thing,  and  you  do  choose  not  to  do  that  thing? 
And  if  you  choose  to  sin,  it  would  be  absurd  to  say  tliat 
Adam's  sin  is  to  bear  the  blame,  and  that  you,  sinning  from 
your  own  deliberate  choice,  are  to  be  regarded  as  innocents 
on  earth,  and  to  be  exculpated  at  the  judgment-seat  of  Christ^ 

Let  us  therefore  look  at  the  whole  of  these  objections,  and 
see,  if  we  possibly  can,  where  the  difficulty  lies.  Why  is  it 
that  man  will  not  come  to  Christ,  or  translated  into  popular 
language,  why  is  it  that  men  will  not  become  Christians ; 
why  is  it  that  they  will  not  take  the  way  to  heaven,  and  be 
holy  and  happy  for  ever  and  ever  ?  I  answer  first.  The 
difficulty  is  not  on  the  part  of  God.  You  cannot  say  that 
God  is  opposed  to  your  coming  to  heaven.  You  cannot 
show  me  a  brand  that  he  has  affixed  upon  you.  You  arc 
not  conscious  of  weights  that  he  has  hung  to  your  soul,  that 
drag  you  necessarily  downwards  to  the  depths  of  perdition. 
You  can  see  no  obstruction  that  his  hand  has  planted ;  you 
can  hear  no  fiat  that  his  lips  pronounce.  On  the  contrary, 
every  page  of  his  holy  word  leads  you  to  believe  that  he  has 
no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the  sinner,  but  rather  that  he 
should  turn  from  his  wickedness  and  live. 

In  the  second  place,  the  difficulty  cannot  lie  in  Christ's 
atonement  being  insufficient.  You  cannot  say  his  blood 
cleanseth  from  some  sins,  but  not  from  all  sin.  You  cannot 
say  he  is  able  to  save  a  few,  but  that  he  is  not  able  to  sare 
all  that  come  to  him,  seeing  that  "  he  ever  liveth  to  make 
intercession  for  them."  His  sacrifice  is  of  infinite  efficacy ; 
and  if  there  were  millions  of  worlds  that  needed  to  share  in 
its  efficacy  —  when  millions  had  been  saved  through  it,  its 
virtue  would  be  inexhaustible  still.  You  cannot,  therefore, 
say  that  his  righteousness  is  not  enough  to  cover  you,  that  his 
blood  is  not  enough  to  cleanse  you,  that  his  death  is  not  a 


334  LAST    APPEAL. 

sacrifice  sufficient  for  you.  You  cannot,  in  the  next  place, 
say  that  Christ  is  unwilling  to  redeem  you.  Open  the  New 
Testament :  what  does  he  say  ?  "  Come  unto  me,  all  that  are 
weary  and  heavy  laden."  What  is  his  complaint  ?  "  Ye 
will  not  come  unto  me."  What  is  his  invitation  ?  "  Look 
unto  me  and  be  ye  saved  all  the  ends  of  the  earth." 

You  cannot  urge,  in  the  next  place,  that  the  Holy  Spirit 
of  God  is  unwilling.  He  strove  with  the  antediluvians,  he 
strives  with  us.  He  inspired  apostles  to  preach,  evangelists 
to  record  the  glad  tidings  that  we  now  hear.  And,  there- 
fore, whether  I  look  to  what  God  the  Father  has  done,  or  to 
what  Christ  is  doing,  or  to  what  the  Holy  Spirit  has  to  do, 
I  am  constrained  to  conclude,  that  the  obstruction,  whatever 
that  obstruction  may  be,  is  not  uj^on  the  part  of  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Ghost. 

But  is  it,  in  the  next  place,  in  God's  own  word  ?  Is  the 
Bible  so  dim  a  lantern  that  it  cannot  light  you  on  your  way 
to  heaven  ?  Does  it  disclose  the  road  that  leads  you  to  the 
Lamb  so  imperfectly  that  yo.u  stumbk3  at  every  footstep? 
The  very  reverse  is  the  fact.  All  the  clouds  of  Scripture 
float  in  the  upper  realms,  to  w^hich  no  human  wing  can  soar ; 
but  all  the  sunshine  of  Scripture,  with  scarcely  a  cloud  or 
a  shadow  upon  it,  is  upon  the  lower  levels,  w^hich  it  is  our 
duty  and  privilege  to  tread.  There  are  mysteries  in  the 
Sacred  Volume  so  impenetrable  that  no  genius  has  pierced 
them  at  any  time ;  but  the  great  truths  that  relate  to  our 
salvation  are  so  plain,  that  critics  may  err,  scholars  may 
stumble,  but  the  wayfaring  man  wdll  not  err  when  he  looks 
into  them. 

Will  you  say  that  the  obstruction  to  heaven  and  to  happi 
ness  is  in  the  greatness  of  your  sins  ?  That  is  no  obstruc- 
tion at  all ;  because  the  answer  to  that  is,  "  Though  your 
sins  be  as  scarlet,  they  shall  be  white  as  snow ;  though  they 
be  red  like  crimson,  they  shall  be  as  wool."  No  man  that 
hears  the  Gospel  will  be  lost  because  of  his  sins ;  the  con- 


LAST   APPEAL.  335 

derailing  sin  will  be  that  lie  rejected  the  remedy  for  them. 
The  heathen  may  be  judged  by  a  law  that  they  have  broken, 
but  they  that  hear  the  Gospel  will  be  judged  by  their  recep- 
tion or  rejection  of  the  remedy  provided.  Now,  your  sins 
are  not  an  obstruction  to  heaven :  Christ's  blood  will  wash 
them  all  away ;  the  Holy  Spirit  can  give  you  grace  to  re- 
pent of  and  to  renounce  them.  Well,  then,  what  is  your 
reason  —  what  is  your  excuse  ?  Do  you  answer,  "  We  have 
not  power  to  know  God,  to  love  God,  to  believe  on  the 
Saviour,  and  to  accept  heaven  ? "  I  ask,  "  Have  you  not 
understandings  that  can  distinguish  a  sovereign  from  a  shil- 
ling, a  good  shilling  from  a  bad  one  ?  Have  you  not  hearts 
and  affections  that  can  love  many  things,  and  hate  many 
things?  Have  you  not  a  conscience  that  still  feels,  and 
responds  to  a  sense  of  responsibility?  Then  what  is  the 
reason  ?  Is  it,  again  I  ask,  want  of  capacity  ?  Are  you 
utterly  incapable  of  being  made  Christians  ?  If  you  have 
the  incapacity  wl  ich  I  have  referred  to,  then  the  Gospel  is 
no  more  addressed  to  you  than  it  is  to  trees  and  stones,  to 
the  fishes  of  the  deep,  and  to  the  cattle  on  the  hills ;  because 
you  are  incapable,  you  say,  of  being  benefited  by  its  grand 
provision.  And  if  this  be  true,  then  God  will  punish  with 
eternal  misery  infinite  multitudes  for  not  doing  w^hat  they 
have  no  capacity  to  do ;  and  his  tyranny  Avill  be  as  great  as 
that  of  the  Babylonian  despot  who  punished  with  death  the 
wise  men  that  could  not  declare  the  dream  that  he  himself 
had  forgotten;  and  the  slothful  servant  that  brought  his 
talent  in  a  napkin  unused,  because  he  believed  his  master  to 
be  a  hard  man,  reaping  where  he  had  not  strewed,  instead 
of  being  worthy  of  that  retribution  wherewith  his  conduct 
was  visited,  acted  justly,  honestly,  and  conscientiously.  If 
God  punishes  for  incapacity,  then  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
mercy ;  for  mercy  is  deliverance  from  deserved  punishment. 
But  your  punishment  would  not  be  deserved,  and  therefore 
mercy  could  not  be  exercised.     And  yet  the  law  does  not 


336  LAST    APPEAL. 

seem  to  show  tliat  it  is  want  of  capacity ;  for  what  is  its  de- 
mand ?  Nothing  more  reasonable.  It  does  not  say,  "  Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  an  angel's  fervor  or  with 
an  archangel's  force  ; "  but,  "  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy 
God  with  all  thy  heart."  Now,  I  ask  any  one  in  this  assem- 
bly, Are  you  conscious,  not  that  you  have  loved  God  as  you 
thought  his  law  demanded,  but  have  you  really  loved  him 
as  much  as  you  could  ?  No  one  in  this  assembly  can  say, 
"I  have  loved  God  as  much  as  I. could  ;"  but,  "I  know  that 
I  have  neither  loved  God  nor  my  neighbor  as  much  as  1 
could." 

But  Avhat  an  idea  would  this  give  of  the  Gospel !  If  man 
is  utterly  incapable  of  believing  in  the  truths  of  the  Gospel, 
of  embracing  the  only  Saviour  of  the  guilty,  and  accepting 
that  which  is  the  way  to  heaven,  and  becoming  a  new  crea- 
ture by  the  influence  of  transforming  grace,  then  God's  jus- 
tice enacts  the  penalty  of  eternal  death  on  man  who  cannot 
do  what  God  has  commanded  him  to  do ;  and  when  he  saw 
this  to  be  the  case,  rather  than  that  all  humanity  should 
perish  he  gave  his  Son  a  sacrifice,  to  rescue  us  from  an  un- 
just, an  undeserved,  and  an  iniquitous  punishment.  And 
when  he  has  done  so,  he  offers  us  salvation  on  terms  of  which 
we  are  incapable,  —  namely,  repentance  and  faith ;  and 
threatens  us  with  everlasting  wrath  for  not  doing  what  we 
ai*e  incapable  of  doing  —  believing  in  his  testimony,  and 
resting  on  his  precious  sacrifice,  and  entering  into  heaven 
through  his  blood,  and  through  his  merits.  Now  this  would 
not  be  the  good  news ;  this  would  not  be  a  Gospel  to  us, 
but  the  very  opposite  to  the  Gospel.  But  when  we  open 
those  parts  of  the  Bible  that  allude  to  the  triumj^hs,  and  the 
spread  of  this  Gospel,  we  find  very  different  portraits  of  it. 
For  instance,  it  is  stated  by  one  apostle,  that  "  not  many 
wise,  not  many  mighty,  not  many  noble,  are  called"  of  God; 
"  but  God  hath  chosen  the  foolish  things  of  the  world  to 
confound  the  wise ;  and  the  weak  things  of  the  world  to  con- 


i 


LAST    APPEAL.  337 

found  the  things  which  are  mighty."  And  our  Lord  says,  — 
"  I  thank  thee,  O  Father,  that  thou  hast  hid  these  things  from 
the  wise  and  prudent,  and  hast  revealed  them  unto  babes." 
And  do  you  not  find  it  fact  that  a  peasant  becomes  a  Chris- 
tian, and  a  philosopher  remains  a  sceptic  ?  Do  you  not  see 
many  a  man  with  a  very  humble  mind  become  a  true  be- 
liever, and  many  a  man  with  a  very  powerful  intellect  remain 
in  atheistic  infidcHty  ?  What  is  the  reason  of  this  ?  The 
reason  is  obvious ;  —  that  if  there  be  capacity  in  the  hum- 
blest intellect  there  surely  must  be  capacity  in  the  highest ; 
and  that  if  the  weakest  mind  can  believe  and  receive  the 
truth,  and  rejoice  in  it,  the  most  powerful  intellect  may  not 
and  dare  not  plead,  "  I  am  not  a  Christian,  because  I  could 
not  be  so ; "  and  at  the  judgment-seat  none  shall  be  able  to 
say,  "  I  am  not  saved,  because  I  could  not  be  saved."  Every 
intimation  about  the  judgment-seat  leads  us  to  conclude  the 
opposite ;  that  the  lost  are  sunk  to  the  depths  of  woe,  just 
because  they  would  not  be  saved,  and  that  if  any  perish, 
they  perish  not  because  they  cannot  help  their  destiny  or 
avert  their  doom,  but  because  they  loved  sin  more  than  its 
correlative ;  they  loved  the  way  of  the  scoffers  more  than 
the  way  of  the  sons  of  God ;  and  every  man  in  this  assembly 
is  perfectly  conscious  that  the  evil  that  he  does  is  his  own 
free,  deliberate  choice,  and  that  the  reason  he  is  not  a  Chris- 
tian is  that  he  is  shuffling  with  God,  that  he  is  trifling  with 
his  conscience,  and  that  he  will  not  entertain  the  question 
like  an  honest  man,  and  look  responsibility  in  the  face ;  and 
whenever  the  thought  lives  in  his  reason,  and  his  responsi- 
bihty  comes  near  to  his  conscience,  he  goes  to  painting,  to 
poetry,  to  music,  to  the  world,  to  politics,  to  literature,  to  any 
or  to  every  resource,  in  order  to  stave  off  the  evil  day,  and 
then  he  follows  up  all  with  that  most  soothing  opiate, 
"  When  I  have  a  convenient  season,  I  will  take  the  whole 
subject  into  my  serious  consideration."  You  know  that  this 
is  your  own  portrait;  you  know  that  if  you  sketched  it 
29 


338  LAST    APPEAL. 

yourself  you  couicl  not  do  it  more  exactly.  The  whole  diffi- 
culty lies  in  the  inclination.  "  Ye  will  not  come  to  me." 
"  Why  will  ye  die  ?  "  "  How  often  w^ould  I  have  gathered 
thee  as  a  hen  gathereth  her  brood  under  her  wings ! "  and 
his  answer  is,  "  Ye  will  not."  Your  "  I  cannot  be  a  Clms- 
tian,"  translated  into  intelligible  language,  is,  "I  will  not  be 
a  Christian."  If  you  ask,  Then  what  does  the  Holy  Spirit 
do ;  do  you  disregard,  or  ignore  the  great  work  of  the  Spirit 
of  God  ?  I  answer,  Certainly  not.  No  man  ever  entered 
into  heaven  who  was  not  transformed  and  regenerated  by 
God's  Holy  Spirit.  But  what  does  the  Holy  Spirit  do  ? 
He  does  not  destroy  one  man  in  order  to  construct  another 
upon  his  ruins.  As  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body,  it  is 
the  same  body  that  rises  again,  so  in  the  religion  of  the  soul, 
it  is  not  another  soul,  another  memory,  another  conscience, 
another  imagination  ;  but  it  is  the  inspiration,  the  conversion, 
the  expansion,  the  enlargement,  the  transformation,  of  all  the 
faculties  of  the  soul.  The  Spirit's  great  w^ork  is  to  make  us 
willing.  And  what  is  the  evidence  of  it  ?  "  Work  out 
your  salvation  Avith  fear  and  trembling ;  for  it  is  God  that 
w^orketh  in  you  to  Avill  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure."  He 
convinces  of  sin,  he  brings  all  things  to  your  remembrance, 
he  works  within  you  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure. 
But  do  you  say,  "  My  heart  is  so  depraved,  so  wicked,  that 
I  cannot  believe  ?  "  That  is,  simply  translated  into  plainer 
language,  "  I  am  so  bad  that  I  do  not  desire  to  get  better." 
The  very  wish  to  be  a  Christian  is  the  first  sound  of  that 
footfall  that  precedes  your  acceptance  of  the  truth.  The 
very  desire  to  have  a  new  heart,  is  the  inspiration  of  God, 
that  will  unfold  itself  in  the  prayer,  "  Create  in  me  a  clean 
heart,  O  God ;  renew  a  right  spirit  within  me." 

One  refuge  to  which  man  retreats  very  often,  is  that  he  is 
a  free  agent.  "  I  can  repent,  believe,  and  be  a  Christian 
when  I  like."  The  precedent  for  that  is  the  precedent  of 
one  whose  history  and  life  do  not  give  much  encouragement 


LAST    APPEAL.  339 

to  imitation.  Felix  said,  "  When  I  have  a  convenient  season, 
I  will  send  for  thee."  That  convenient  season  never  arrived. 
And  when  man  is  driven  out  of  that  refuge,  he  Avill  then 
say,  "Man  can  do  nothing;  Iliad  better  therefore  remain, 
rest  on  my  oars  till  God  is  pleased  to  change  iny  heart." 
Hell  is  paved  with  good  intentions  ;  remember,  duty  is  in 
the  present,  never  in  the  future.  God's  command  should 
have  from  you  not  an  echo,  but  an  answer ;  and  that  an- 
swer not  to-morrow,  but  to-day  ;  and  he  that  puts  off  the 
duty  that  devolves  upon  him  to-day  till  to-morrow,  merely 
more  courteously,  but  not  less  truly,  says  to  God,  "  I  will 
not  obey  thee." 

And  in  the  next  place,  when  you  say  that  "  God  must 
change  the  heart,  therefore  I  need  not  do  any  thing,"  I 
answer,  God  is  a  God  of  means.  I  admit  he  can  work  with 
means,  or  without  means,  or  against  means ;  but  his  great 
law  is,  that  he  works  by  means.  If  you  say  that  you  cannot 
change  your  heart,  is  there  nothing  that  you  can  do  ? 
"When  you  try  to  open  the  Bible,  does  any  thing  shut  it  in 
spite  of  you?  When  you  try  to  read  the  Bible,  do  your 
eyes  instinctively  close,  and  does  the  type  convey  no  mean- 
ing? When  you  come  to  the  house  of  God,  does  any  one 
snatch  you  away  ?  When  you  listen  to  a  sermon,  does  any 
thought  come  into  your  mind  that  you  cannot  quench  by  tlie 
volition  to  do  so  ?  Does  any  anxiety  come  in  there  tliat  you 
cannot  expel  if  j^ou  will  only  make  the  attempt  to  do  so  ? 
Can  you  not  pray  ?  Can  you  not  read  books  that  will  in- 
struct you  in  the  v/ay  to  heaven?  You  ki^ow  you  can. 
When  you  have  exhausted  all  that  is  within  your  own  reach, 
and  then  feel  that  you  are  no  nearer  heaven  than  when  first 
you  began  to  inquire,  it  will  be  time  enough  to  say,  "  I  be- 
lieve I  am  a  hopeless  reprobate,  and  that  there  is  no  possi- 
bility of  being  saved ;  and  therefore  I  give  up  all  for  lost." 
But  think  one  moment  what  is  the  drift  of  all  I  have  been 
saying.     All  this  seems  to  me  almost  a  reproach  upon  the 


340  LAST   APPEAL. 

Gospel,  and  an  insult  to  you.  Why,  what  are  the  difficul- 
ties I  am  combating  ?  Tliey  must  surely  be  imaginary.  If 
the  Gospel  be  indeed  a  penance,  painful  and  laborious,  that 
its  recipient  must  endure  ;  if  this  Gospel  be  a  nauseous  drug 
that  you  must  take  three,  four,  six,  eight  times  a  day  during 
all  the  remainder  of  your  life  hereafter,  —  then  I  might 
spend  the  force  of  argument,  and  endeavor  by  eloquent  ap- 
peal to  try  to  induce  you  to  commence  to  take  this  nauseous 
drug.  But  surely,  good  news  among  men,  glory  to  God  in 
the  highest,  on  earth  peace,  forgiveness  for  the  greatest  sin, 
welcome  for  the  greatest  sinner,  regeneration  for  the  hard- 
est heart,  and  salvation  for  the  oldest  criminal  that  hears  the 
Gospel,  are  joyous  —  oh  !  surely,  it  is  an  insult  to  your  good 
sense  to  urge  you  to  lay  aside  excuses  for  rejecting  your 
happiness,  for  refusing  to  be  happy,  the  sick  for  not  going  to 
a  physician,  the  dying  for  not  having  life,  the  lost  for  not 
being  found !  One  wonders  that  any  one  hearing  a  Gospel 
that  would  electrify  the  lost,  can  for  one  moment  need  a  per- 
suasive to  believe,  to  rejoice  in,  and  be  happy.  Let  me  ask 
you  again,  what  is  this  Gospel  ?  Do  you  desire  to  see  God 
in  the  aspect  of  a  Father  ?  Do  you  desire  to  see  Him  that 
made  you,  your  Legislator  and  your  King,  not  preparing 
punishment  for  his  returning  prodigal,  but  looking  out  if  he 
can  see  the  first  sign  of  his  shadow,  or  hear  the  first  footfall 
of  his  approach,  and  the  instant  that  he  hears  or  sees  one 
poor  sinner  running  from  his  ruin,  and  seeking  forgiveness 
and  acceptance  in  the  bosom  of  God,  giving  signal  to  all  the 
choirs  of  the  sky,  who  sing  for  joy,  "  One  lost  sheep  is  found 
—  another  dead  one  is  alive  —  another  poor  prodigal  has 
come  to  his  home."  Or  do  you  desire  to  find  the  way  to 
everlasting  life,  the  way  to  everlasting  joy  ?  Where  can 
you  find  it  but  in  this  blessed  Gospel  ?  Ask  nature,  and  in 
all  her  oracles  she  is  dumb ;  try  it  by  Mount  Sinai,  and  you 
may  as  well  climb  to  the  fixed  stars  as  climb  by  it  to  heaven. 
The  door  of  innocence  is  shut,  the  door  of  the  law  is  impas- 


LAST    APPEAL.  841 

sable ;  but  here  announced  upon  the  banks  of  the  Jordan, 
and  upon  the  streets  of  Jerusalem,  a  sound  more  musical 
than  ever  fell  upon  the  listening  ear  of  mankind,  "I  am  the 
Avaj ;  no  man  cometh  to  the  Father  but  by  me."  Do  you 
nc^ed  a  persuasive,  do  you  need  argument,  and  eloquent  ap- 
peal to  urge  you  to  enter  upon  that  way,  to  lay  hold  upon 
this  Blessed  Saviour,  and  to  give  utterance  to  the  deepest 
feelings  of  your  heart,  "  Lord,  to  whom  can  we  go  but  unto 
thee  ?  Thou  hast  the  words  of  eternal  life."  Or  again,  do 
you  desire  to  have  the  forgiveness  of  your  sins?  Do  you 
wish  to  know  the  only  possibility  of  that  —  how  shall  sin  be 
forgiven,  how  shall  mine  iniquities  be  pardoned?  Ask  any 
religion  you  like,  and  it  can  give  you  no  answer.  Ask  the 
deist,  and  he  hopes  that  you  may  obtain  forgiveness,  but  he 
cannot  assure  you.  Ask  the  Unitarian,  and  he  thinks  God 
will  be  merciful,  he  hopes  there  will  be  mercy.  God  says 
he  will  forgive ;  but  how  he  can  be  just  and  yet  justify,  he 
knows  not.  But  ask  the  Bible,  ask  the  evangelist,  ask  the 
Holy  Spirit  who  inspired  that  evangelist  to  record  that  tes- 
timony ;  and  he  will  tell  you  that  in  Christ  God  is  just,  whilst 
he  justifies  the  very  chiefest  and  worst  of  sinners.  What  a 
magnificent  truth  is  that !  Not,  God  is  merciful  to  forgive  us  ; 
we  can  easily  understand  that ;  but  what  a  truth  —  "  God  is 
faithful  and  just  to  forgive  us  our  sins  ! "  Such  a  statement 
is  that  of  an  inspired  evangelist,  or  it  is  the  Avild  hallucination 
of  a  lunatic.  It  can  be  nothing  between  the  two.  But  "  we 
know  in  whom  we  have  believed."  In  Christ  we  have  re- 
mission and  forgiveness  of  sins.  If  then  you  are  conscious 
you  are  sinners,  and  there  is  no  one  in  this  assembly  tiiat 
does  not  feel  that ;  if  you  know  that  sin  is  misery  on  earth, 
and  misery  hereafter,  when  things  seen  and  palpable  have 
passed  away  ;  if  you  know  the  wages  of  sin  is  death  ;  if  you 
believe  what  the  Bible  tells  you,  that  you  are  shut  up  in  the 
prison  of  condemnation  by  nature,  criminals,  without  God 
and  without   hope,  —  then,  if  freedom  to  the  captive  and 

29* 


342  LAST    APPEAL. 

health  to  the  diseased  need  no  urging ;  if  food  to  the  hun- 
gry needs  not  the  accompaniment  of  persuasion  to  make  him 
eat  it,  how  is  it  possible  that  this  good  news,  the  chiefest 
Saviour  for  the  chiefest  sinner,  needs  arguing,  persuasion, 
remonstrance,  reasoning?  One  would  think  the  difficulty 
would  be  to  prevent  all  humanity  rushing  with  lightning 
speed  to  the  bosom  of  God,  and  having  instant  peace,  and 
pardon,  and  acceptance.  Oh !  shall  the  fishermen  forsake 
their  nets,  and  the  publican  his  receipt  of  custom,  and  royal 
ones  their  thrones,  and  philosophers  their  studies,  and  come 
and  worship  the  Infant  Jesus ;  and  shall  we  go  one  to  his 
farm,  another  to  his  merchandise,  and  another  to  his  home, 
and  all  say,  "  We  will  send  for  him  at  a  more  convenient 
season  ? "  My  dear  friends,  the  guilt  that  will  ruin  thou- 
sands is  not  that  they  have  broken  God's  law,  but  that  they 
have  heard  such  a  Gospel  as  this,  and  utterly  despised  it. 
And  let  me  remind  you  of  that  awful  truth  —  I  think  the  most 
awful  in  the  New  Testament  —  that  rejecting  is  not  such  a 
sin  as  neglecting.  I  can  respect  the  infidel  Avho  says,  "  I 
have  examined  the  Bible  "  —  he  may  have  examined  it  very 
imperfectly  — "  and  the  conclusion  I  come  to  is,  that  the 
Bible  is  not  true."  I  can  respect  that  man  —  he  is  most 
honest  he  is  most  candid  —  whilst  I  bitterly  deplore  his  misfor- 
tune. But  when  a  man  hears  the  Gospel,  and  puts  down  his 
own  conclusions  on  what  he  has  heard,  and  lives  in  contempt- 
uous neglect,  I  can  understand  the  force  of  that  awful  ex- 
clamation of  an  apostle,  "  How  shall  we  escape  ;  "  not  if  we 
reject  —  that  is  bad  enough  —  but  "  how  shall  we  escape, 
if  we  neglect  so  great  salvation  ?  " 

Now,  I  ask  you.  Have  you  ever  spent  as  much  time  upon 
the  investigation  of  the  way  to  heaven,  of  the  truth  of  Chris- 
tianity, as  you  have  spent  in  reading  some  ancient  history, 
or  deciphering  some  curious  manuscrijit,  or  ascertaining  the 
medical  properties  of  a  plant,  or  analyzing  the  crystals  of  a 
mineral?     Are  there   not  thousands   upon  thousands  who, 


LAST    APPEAL.  343 

if  they  would  only  honestly  and  impartially  reflect,  would  see 
that  no  time  is  regarded  by  them  as  too  great  to  be  expended 
upon  scientific  matters,  and  that  minutes  are  thought  to  be 
most  unworthy  sacrifices  when  expended  upon  ascertaining 
if  this  be  God's  Book,  and  if  they  be  walking  in  the  way 
that  leads  to  heaven.  Why,  how  can  we  answer  for  these 
things  —  how  can  we  excuse  ourselves  at  the  judgment-seat? 
If  this  Bible  be  true,  often  has  the  infidel  said,  there  are  not 
half  a  dozen  believers  in  it ;  if  this  Bible  be  false,  it  is  not 
to  be  received  with  any  intermediate  treatment.  I  cannot 
accept  Christianity  as  a  piece  of  state  policy ;  I  cannot  ac- 
cept the  minister  of  the  Gospel  as  one  merely  to  keep  the 
common  people  in  order.  I  regard  religion  as  the  great  in- 
structress of  the  soul,  the  way  to  God,  to  heaven,  and  to 
happiness ;  and,  if  this  book  be  not  that,  then  it  is  the  most 
awful  blasphemy :  it  cannot  be  burned  too  soon.  And  what 
we  are  called  upon  to  come  to,  is  to  one  or  other  of  these 
conclusions  ;  —  either  put  the  book  into  the  fire,  speak  man- 
fully, say,  "  I  do  not  believe  in  God,  or  in  heaven,  or  in  hell, 
or  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul."  I  can  understand  that  — 
that  is  most  consistent ;  but  any  thing  between  that,  and 
vital,  living,  evangelical,  thorough  Protestant  Christianity,  I 
know  not.  There  are  but  two  grand  consistencies  in  the 
world ;  —  the  man  that  musters  hardihood  to  live,  as  live  he 
may,  in  the  freezing  vacuum  in  which  the  soul  cannot 
breathe  and  wing  cannot  soar,  called  Atheism,  or  the  man 
that  lives  in  the  happy,  the  holy,  the  blessed  hope,  that  God 
is  his  God,  eternity  his  life  hereafter,  infinitude  his  home. 
There  is  nothing  consistent  between.  Socinianism  is  a  huge 
inconsistency,  Tractarianism  is  a  huge  inconsistency,  Deism 
is  a  huge  inconsistency.  Atheism  is  a  consistency  —  the 
consistency  of  the  polar  iceberg  it  may  be,  but  it  is  consis- 
tency—  living  Christianity  is  also  a  consistency;  and  be- 
tween these  two  there  is  not  a  resting-place  for  the  soles  of 
your  feet. 


M4:  LAST   APPEAL. 

Or,  on  the  otlier  band,  do  you  desire  your  hearts  to  be  re- 
newed by  God's  Holy  Spirit,  —  do  you  wish  to  be  made  tit 
for  heaven  ?  Jesus  appeals  to  you,  and  he  says,  "  If  ye, 
fathers  and  mothers,  with  all  your  faults,  know  how  to  give 
good  gifts  to  your  children,  how  much  more  will  your  heav- 
enly Father  give  the  Holy  Spirit  unto  them  that  ask  him  ?  " 
One  would  think  it  would  need  no  reasoning  to  make  you 
pray,  "  O  God,  give  me  thy  Holy  Spirit."  Or,  do  you  desire 
to  join,  in  the  better  land,  the  groups  of  them  that  have  pre- 
ceded you  ?  Do  you  desire  to  mingle  with  cherubim  and 
seraphim,  and  those  that  worship  God  in  the  upper  sanctuary  ? 
How  did  they  get  there  ?  There  is  not  a  soul  in  heaven 
that  did  not  get  there  by  one  only  process.  One  asks,  "  Who 
are  these  that  I  see  in  heaven  clothed  in  white  robes  — 
wdio  are  they  ?  "  The  answer  is,  "  These  are  they  that  have 
washed  their  robes,  and  made  them  white  in  the  blood  of  the 
Lamb.  Therefore  are  they  before  tlie  throne  of  God,  and 
serve  him  day  and  night  without  ceasing."  Now  you  can 
get  there  by  the  same  process.  There  is  but  one  word  that 
is  the  password  of  heaven  and  earth ;  there  is  but  one  way 
that  leads  to  glory,  to  honor,  and  to  immortality,  —  and  that 
is,  Christ.  It  is  his  precious  blood,  it  is  trust  in  God's  love 
manifested  to  us  in  and  through  Christ  the  Mediator,  and 
applied  to  us  by  his  holy  and  his  blessed  Spirit.  You 
are  in  a  world  of  trial.  I  speak  to  men  of  every  section, 
sphere,  and  class,  in  our  social  superstructure ;  I  speak  to 
those  that  have  aches,  and  ills,  and  cares,  and  bitter  recollec- 
tions ;  and,  worse  than  bitter  recollections,  foreboding  fears, 
and  sorrows,  and  trials,  the  dim  presentiments  of  which  are 
all  that  they  feel  now.  In  such  a  world  we  need  not  only 
guidance,  but  comfort.  Where  will  you  go  amidst  the 
accumulating  weaknesses  of  age,  amidst  the  darkening  of 
lights  that  once  made  your  home  all  brightness;  and  the 
exhaustion  of  a  fire  that  once  made  it  all  cheerful  —  where 
will  you  go  for  comfort  ?     All  the  cisterns  of  this  world  are 


LAST   APPEAL.  345 

broken  cisterns.  I  cannot  conceive  how  a  man  can  liave  one 
moment's  happiness  or  peace  who  lives  to  fifty,  sixty,  seventy, 
and  sees  son,  daughter,  brothers  and  sisters,  and  fathers  and 
mothers,  and  friends,  all  swelling  the  dim  procession  to  the 
grave,  and  knows  not  Christ.  Where  can  that  man's  happi- 
ness be  ?  If  there  be  no  meeting  place,  no  blessed  reunion, 
no  repairing  of  shattered  groups,  no  completing  of  broken 
circles,  no  hope  beyond  the  grave,  no  light  of  glory  upon  the 
l^ale  flxce  of  the  dead,  then  of  all  men  we  are  most  miserable, 
and  a  dog's  life  is  better  than  that  of  a  human  being.  But 
we  need  consolation,  and,  blessed  be  God !  we  know  where 
it  is  to  be  found.  And  if,  my  dear  friends,  I  bring  you  to 
that  hour  which  comes  to  all,  and  that  must  also  come  to 
you,  I  ask,  what  then  will  be  your  comfort  ?  You  may  de- 
pend upon  it,  when  you  lie  down  upon  the  last  bed,  and  the 
quivering  pulse  gives  evidence  of  the  approaching  severance, 
all  the  honors  that  could  be  snowed  down  from  roj^al  thrones, 
all  the  riches  that  could  be  piled  around  you  in  the  largest 
coffers,  you  have  no  idea  how  poor,  worthless,  miserable, 
unsatisfactory  they  will  seem  to  you  in  that  hour,  and  dur- 
ing that  agony :  they  can  tell  you  best  who  have  gone 
through  it.  Those  things  that  you  are  now  clutching 
at,  those  treasures  you  are  now  striving  after,  on  a  dy- 
ing bed  will  be  to  you  as  wretched  clay,  and  worthless, 
even  more  worthless  than  that.  But  if,  on  a  dying  bed, 
you  know  that  the  sun  of  your  life,  that  sets  in  the  darken- 
ing west,  will  rise  beautifid  and  glorious,  in  the  everlasting 
east ;  if  you  feel  that  your  death  is  but  the  officiating  min- 
ister parting  from  the  shattered  temple  in  which  it  has  done 
service  so  long,  and  singing,  as  he  emerges  from  the  ruin, 
his  happy  and  his  blessed  "  Now,  Lord,  lettest  thou  thy  ser- 
vant depart  in  peace ; "  if  you  feel,  as  the  Gospel  teaches, 
that  the  day  of  your  death  is  only  your  coming  of  age,  and 
that  your  last  breath  makes  you  free  of  a  glorious  universe, 


346  LAST    APPEAL. 

what  comfort,  what  peace  !  If  this  be  true,  what  a  glorious 
rehgioii  is  the  Gospel !  If  this  book  be  true,  and  if  what  I 
am  now  stating  be  its  fair,  as  it  is  its  fair  and  impartial  in- 
terpretation, then  to  a  Christian  there  is  no  dying.  I  need 
not  tell  you  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  universal  night. 
When  it  is  night  upon  this  hemisphere,  or  on  this  side  of 
the  globe,  it  is  bright  daylight  upon  the  other  hemisphere. 
And  there  is  no  such  thing  as  death.  Your  emergence  from 
the  shadows  of  time,  the  hemisphere  of  earth,  is  only  your 
crossing  the  line,  and  entrance  into  the  bright  sunshine  that 
lies  perpetually  upon  the  opposite  side.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  extinction  or  annihilation  to  a  Christian.  We 
think  so  ;  and,  as  I  have  often  said  to  you,  we  dishke  to  die ; 
and  quite  right.  It  is  an  instinct  of  my  nature  to  live  ;  and 
I  believe  the  wish  to  die  is  a  sinful  wish  —  it  is  a  suicidal 
wish.  Our  wish  should  be  to  live  for  ever ;  I  have  often 
said,  we  were  never  made  nor  meant  to  die.  Sin  has  done 
that.  But  when  I  can  look  at  death  in  the  light  of  Chris- 
tianity, I  can  see  that  just  as  my  body  is  undergoing  complete 
dissolution  every  seven  years,  and  new  particles  taking  the 
place  of  the  old,  so  the  grave  will  be  but  the  last  of  its 
changes,  and  its  last  change  will  be  there  under  Christ's  presi- 
dency. How  beautiful  is  the  phrase,  a  cemetery,  literally  a 
sleeping-place  !  —  the  body  calmly  waiting  for  the  resurrec- 
tion hour,  wliilst  the  soul,  the  man,  myself,  that  which  thinks, 
feels,  lives,  and  loves,  is  ministering  before  the  throne  of 
God  and  of  the  Lamb  for  ever! 

If  this  Gospel  do  contain  such  truths  as  these,  must  I  urge 
them  upon  you,  my  dear  friends  ?  In  the  depths  of  his  con- 
science every  one  in  this  assembly  knows  —  and  there  is  my 
strength,  —  that  I  am  perfectly  right.  You  do  not  need 
argument — your  own  hearts,  your  own  consciences,  are  my 
witnesses ;  and  between  these  truths  and  the  conscience  of 
man  there  is  that  perfect  harmony  which  makes  the  infer- 


LAST    APPEAL.  347 

ence  irresistible,  that  the  God  who  made  my  conscience,  in- 
spired this  Gospel ;  and  I  speak  to  you  words  of  soberness 
and  truth  when  I  bid  you  believe  on  Him,  and  remind  you 
that  there  is  no  excuse  that  Avill  stand  for  a  moment's  inves- 
tigation for  not  believing  on  Jesus,  and  so  liaving  life  ever- 
lastinof. 


END. 


vHy 


10 


d 


DATE  DUE 

*'^  "^U 

in  LI  ■!/  '^.    ' 

0miw 

' 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S.A. 

